Innocence
by Scottie-195
Summary: In a freak accident, Allen gets transformed into a four year old. And Komui, being the sadistic supervisor he was assigns Kanda with the noble task of babysitting. To make matters worse, Allen can't seem to remember anything at all!
1. Chapter 1

Hi, people! First D.Gray-man fic here. And yes, I totally own this awesome manga and anime and now I'm filthy rich because of it! Wallow in it, you mere mortals! Bwahahahahahah!

……Fine, I don't –sulks- but one can dream, no? Anyways, coughs, getting off topic here...eheh. My bad. On to chapter 1! Happy reading :)

* * *

Kanda Yuu was royally pissed. Not that it was unusual, by any means. He was usually annoyed over something or the other, be it stolen underwear (don't ask), Ravi turning his hair pink, or other people breathing too loudly within his vicinity. Today, however, his scowl was darker than usual; an amazing feat as many didn't think that was even humanly possible. People immediately began clearing a path for the bad tempered samurai whenever he happened to stomp into sight; so much so that Ravi, the infamous human date computer who seemed to have a death wish, commented it somewhat resembled the famous parable of the parting of the red sea.

The thought of Kanda Yuu as Moses amused the red headed exorcist no end.

This time however, it seemed that he actually _had _a valid reason to be irritated. He was apparently paired up with Allen Walker for their latest mission. In general, Kanda disliked going on missions with the young white haired boy. In his own opinionated opinion, the kid was too soft, too weak, too naïve for the dangerous field of exorcism. The boy _would_ risk delaying their time to save a kitten trapped up in a tree and even risk jeopardizing the entire mission to save the sorry ass of some insignificant bystander.

He would even risk his own life to save another. That, Kanda had decided, was nothing but mere foolish sentimentality. The main tasks of the exorcists were to collect the Innocence scattered all over the globe and slay stray akumas. Nothing more, nothing less. They weren't bloody boy scouts for goodness sake. It was neither their duty nor obligation to help people out of their own messes. But oh no, Mister Knight-In-Shinning-Overcoat rushed into dangerous situations impulsively without sparing a thought on the consequences. Usually ending up with him grinding his teeth and pulling the bean sprout out of any messes he had gotten himself into.

Someday, Kanda decided to really keep to his word to the bean sprout and won't come to his rescue anymore. Thought, somehow, as much as the cold hearted samurai hated to admit it; he could never actually bring himself to do it. Damned, cursed brat…….

The other reason for his annoyance, as it happened, was the mission itself. Komui had summoned them both to his paperwork -carpeted office in the wee hours of the morning the day before. Yawning, bleary and droopy eyed, Allen had emerged into the office alongside with a calm, collected and apparently wide-awake Kanda Yuu, though if you peered really closely, you could detect faint dark circles around his eyes.

"Good morning!" Komui greeted cheerily clutching his trademark mug of coffee. He was apparently browsing through his sister's Gossip Weekly magazine, somehow pretending that the ever-present mounds of paperwork scattered all over his desk, his floor, his chair, his carpet, under the desk, under the carpet, under his chair, on top of the fireplace and even on the windowsill didn't exist. It was truly an awe inspiring sight. There was practically nothing that could be seen in the room other than white, rustling crumpled stacks of paper.

"Mo-Morning, Komui-san," Allen stifled a yawn. Kanda merely settled for an impatient glare. A moment of awkward silence filled the very white office. It stretched to a minute, and then half an hour until finally Kanda snapped.

"May we know the reason as to why we have been summoned to your office to do nothing but stand around like idiots and admire the beauty of your unfinished paperwork?" it was the infamous icy tone that usually preceded a brutal massacre. The people at the headquarters recognized it all too well.

Allen had apparently fallen asleep on a stack of paperwork. Kanda suppressed a shudder. The boy was currently _drooling _on a very official and important looking document that he had been using for a makeshift pillow.

Komui looked up from the page in the magazine he had been totally absorbed in. He smiled jauntily, "You must forgive me. I'm currently breathlessly following the sad, tragic tale of Rose (a pseudo name, of course) who had lost her boyfriend to another man, who lost _his _girlfriend to another woman, who lost _her_ boyfriend to another woman, who lost _her _boyfriend to Rose and is, as I've mentioned before, leaving her for another man."

Kanda twitched slightly; his hand itching to wring the infernal man's neck. But cleaning up after a murder in a messy place like this would be a pain in the neck. Not to mention it was hard enough to wade around the paperwork infested office without triggering a paper tsunami, let alone wring somebody's neck. Allen was still peacefully asleep, and, Kanda noted with disgust, still drooling on the very important document. The words were all smudged and sludgy now. He sighed in exasperation and brought out his trusty Mugen, the only other sane entity in the office other than himself and held it threateningly.

Komui winced slightly and shut the magazine with a sigh of reluctance. "Just when it was getting to the juicy parts," he sighed sadly. "Rose was plotting revenge on her boyfriend by seducing her boyfriend's new boyfriend to get back at her boyfriend."

The urge to lope off the man's head was overwhelming. It was the first time he had heard a sentence containing such large amounts of the word 'boyfriend' in it. Surely there had to be some sort of grammatical rule against it. He gritted his teeth dangerously, "Get on with it!"

"Fine, fine. Oi! Allen-kun, wakey-wakey!" Komui clapped his hands together loudly. Allen hurriedly lifted his head off the smudgy document. "I'm awake, I'm awake," he waved his hand, yawning visibly. "What did I miss?"

"Just the _enthralling_ tale of Rosy and her love triangles and her countless affairs with males and females alike," Kanda growled, sarcastically.

"No, it was _not _like that," Komui snapped, defensively. "It's a tragic, heart-wrenching tale of deceit, love, loss, gain and triumph! _Rose_ was a victim of an affair involving her guy running off with another guy whose girlfriend ran off with another girl, whose boyfriend-"

"Enough!" Kanda ordered, resisting the temptation to rumple his beautifully done hair in frustration.

"Go on, Komui-san," the brat looked totally fascinated and intrigued. "What happened next?"

"Rose plans a dastardly revenge upon her scumbag boyfriend by seducing _his _boyfriend. And guess what? The boyfriend's boyfriend totally falls for it! _And_ he ends up falling for Rose. _And_ with a twist to end all twists, Rose ends up falling for _him_ too! So now it's like both Rose and her ex-boyfriend are fighting for the same man. And let's not forget the boyfriend's boyfriend's ex- girlfriend's girlfriend is still trying to win back Rose's ex back!" Komui said in full dramatic mode, his swinging hand knocking down a couple of paperwork stacks. "However-"

"Shut up!" Kanda said through clenched teeth; his normally pale complexion flushed in anger. "Why on earth are we up at four in the morning gossiping like a bunch of school girls? I don't _care_ how that slut gets back her boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. Just get on with the blasted mission before I break something, more specifically something attached to your body."

At this point Mugen was hovering a little too close to Komui's throat for his comfort. Clearing his throat, the man hurriedly put down his magazine and peered up at them solemnly through his spectacles, looking unusually grave. Both Allen and Kanda felt a deep sense of apprehension.

"Lenalee has been recently spotted to be making regular stops at a certain town up north. She has no business being there whatsoever. And she's being extremely evasive and secretive whenever I ask her about it. And-And-And," at this, the overprotective older brother broke down into sobs. "She's_ knitting_ a scarf!"

The two exorcists exchanged a bemused look, failing to understand the crisis of Lenalee knitting a scarf.

"I already have a scarf and so does she! That means that-that scarf must be for-for-for a…….. mysterious lover she's been keeping a secret from her big brother!!" Komui howled, rocking back and forth. 'Why, Lenalee? WHY? Why must you torment your precious big brother so? Why??"

Allen awkwardly patted the sobbing supervisor on the back. Kanda however, crossed his arms impatiently and demanded, "And what has that enlightening bit of information got to do with our mission?"

"You two are to go to that village and hunt down this brazen, lecherous, testosterone-pumped fool my naïve little sister is seeing. I want you to go there and have a little _chat_ with him," Komui said with a sinister, feral smile on his face that left little doubt in both Kanda and Allen's mind that by _chat_, he meant beat the bloody hell out of the unfortunate fellow and stomp on his guts and leave it out for the dogs.

"Komui-san, we can't exactly do that," Allen pleadingly glanced at the samurai for help.

"We're exorcists, you sister obsessed maniac," Kanda told him, scowling. "Not some low-down filthy street thugs. Leave all your obsessive, overprotective tendencies to your Kumorins. Our duties are only to retrieve the Innocence and to kill akumas, not go off butchering any guy who glances at Lenalee's direction."

"Any guy who dares lay eyes on my precious, beautiful Lenalee is considered an akuma!!!" Komui screamed. He looked at the two exorcists with huge, watery eyes. "Please! I can't go there to beat up that guy myself. Lenalee would never forgive me!"

"So you're willing to let _us_ do the dirty work and face Lenalee's wrath while you cower behind gossip magazines?" Kanda demanded, flatly.

"Some sacrifices must be made to ensure the purity of my precious little sister!" Komui roared passionately. Allen and Kanda sweat dropped.

However, in the end, much to Kanda's fury, the little bean sprout, being the sentimental, soft-hearted fool he was, agreed for _both of them_ to go on the ridiculous mission. Brat.

* * *

And that was exactly the situation that brought the two exorcists to a worn-out dirt path leading to a small, peaceful village in some remote part north. Kanda was still cursing his bad luck, while Allen peered around the green countryside with interest.

"It's a nice place, isn't it?" the white haired brat commented, smiling in a rather contented way. Kanda merely scowled in reply.

"Hey, about the guy Lenalee-san is seeing, what are we going to do?" Allen valiantly tried to open up another conversation with the glowering samurai.

"Wasn't it _you_ who had gotten us into this mess in the first place?" Kanda snapped back. "Why don't _you _figure out what to do for once? Damn bean sprout."

"For the hundredth time, my name is Allen Walker," Allen replied wearily. "As for the guy, I guess we _could_ pay him a little visit and try to convince him to leave Lenalee alone for his own good before Komui-san smothers him in his sleep or something."

Kanda hmphed sullenly in reply. He proceeded to walk down the dirt path to the little village. The sooner they got this over with, the better. The sun was shinning brightly with clouds resembling bits of cotton dotted here and there. It was, the samurai grudgingly decided, a rather nice day to be out in the countryside instead of being cooped up inside the headquarters or trudging down all the hustle and bustle of a town where akumas were usually spotted.

It was sort of refreshing to have a break from all his hard training and missions for once.

Not that he'd admit it of course.

The brat was lagging behind. He looked pretty cheerful and relaxed, the samurai noted absently. The bean sprout had been rather down and worn out lately with all the problems with the Noahs and the recent increase of the number of akumas lately. The stress was taking its toll on him, as it was with all the exorcists, but the brat was always so damned naive and soft hearted that he felt things more than the other exorcists, who all had been already hardened over years of bitter experiences.

The thought that Komui purposely picked them out for this mission to give them a much needed break crossed his mind more than once.

Feeling marginally more amiable, the dark haired samurai strolled down the path. Behind him, he heard the bean sprout follow the suite. An oddly peaceful silence reigned for a moment between the two exorcists.

Suddenly, Kanda tensed; his well trained soldier instincts buzzing wildly. Danger was near and fast approaching. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Allen had his cursed eye activated. They glanced at each other for a moment. Allen nodded grimly.

There were akumas nearby.

As if on cue, a dozen akumas burst out in ambush from behind a bush. Kanda and Allen activated their anti-akuma weapons simultaneously, jumping into action.

Kanda cursed under his breath as more and more akumas leaped out to join the fight. True, they mostly consisted of level 1 akumas, but even weaklings in big numbers could be proved deadly. He leaped out of the way to dodge a rain of bullets and slashed at the nearest akuma. One down, several more to go. Gritting his teeth, he ran forward and hacked through several more akumas with relative ease. He spared a glance at the bean sprout to see how he was holding up.

Allen was gallantly standing his ground; his anti-akuma weapon was a blur of white and green as it smashed through the sea of akumas. The boy was fighting valiantly, but it was obvious that he was slowly but surely running out of stamina. The weak brat. With a hiss, Kanda eliminated a couple of akumas in one blow then leaped out of the way to avoid another rain of bullets. He twisted his body in a mid-jump and slashed through the akuma that had been trying to sneak up at him. The samurai looked around in irritation as the vast number of akumas never seemed to decrease, no matter how many they already took out. Cheh, how troublesome.

Why? Kanda wondered as he leaped up and neatly sliced through yet another akuma. Why were there so many akumas converging in this remote place? Komui had not informed them of rumors of any Innocence located around this area. And as irresponsible the man may be when it came to paperwork, Komui was never one to withhold valuable information from the exorcists. Baring his teeth, the samurai swung Mugen at the akumas that were attempting to surround him.

But there had to be only one viable conclusion judging from the ridiculously vast number of akumas: there had to be a piece of the Innocence hidden somewhere in this area.

The smell of metal, sweat and a bit of blood mixed as the fierce battle carried on. Much to his irritation, Kanda was beginning to feel the first telltale signs of exhaustion. His reaction time was getting slower and his slashes with Mugen were getting weaker and more feeble. He had already sustained an injury in his left arm. If he kept this up, he was almost definitely going to get killed. He reluctantly made up his mind to retreat for the time being. As any other self-respecting male, he hated running away but still….they had to formulate a new strategy.

Kanda turned to look for Allen, but his trademark white hair was no where to be seen in the sea of silver metal. The samurai peered closer as he fended off three akumas that had leaped up to attack him. Nothing. Cursing under his breath, Kanda leaped up onto a branch of a tall tree to scan the entire area. Still nothing. The brat was no where in sight. But judging by the number of akumas targeting him now that the other target was apparently missing, Kanda had to escape immediately or die standing.

As Kanda dodged out of sight, his best hope was that the bean sprout had already escaped on his own. Though, Kanda thought it wasn't very likely. As naïve and weak the brat was, Allen Walker was never one to abandon a comrade alone in the battlefield while he escaped alone.

Kanda paused behind a huge oak tree and stood stock still to listen for any sudden movements. Nothing but the sound of his own shallow breathing filled the natural silence of the clearing. After a moment, Kanda's thumping heart calmed down and he breathed in deeply in relief. The akumas were off his trail… for now. His injuries were not all that serious, just a series of cuts and bruises and a gash in his left arm. Closing his eyes in exhaustion, the samurai slowly sank down and leaned against the tree.

Suddenly, Kanda caught sight of something red out of the corner of his sharp eyes. His dark eyes shot wide open as he peered closer at the few drops of red dotted on the grass a few meters east from the tree. He knelt down beside it and gingerly rubbed it between his fingers. There was no doubt about it. It was blood. And as he had stumbled in from the opposite side of the tree, the blood could not have been his. And there was only one person who was likely to be bleeding this much blood around this time and place other than himself.

Frowning, the dark haired samurai scanned the area with sharp, beady eyes. If his blood was here, the brat had to be around here somewhere, or at least passed through here at one point. There! By the thick undergrowth! More drops of blood had dotted the grass, contrasting with the vivid green. Gingerly, Kanda heaved himself up, trying to ignore the sharp, throbbing pain from his gashed arm.

As he walked closer towards the drops of blood, he suddenly noticed that the undergrowth was shuddering and rustling rather unnaturally, especially since it wasn't a windy day. He tensed, his hand automatically diving for Mugen. He gripped the sword tightly as he cautiously approached the still quivering undergrowth. The quivering got more and more intense as the suspicious samurai drew closer.

Holding his breath, Kanda lashed out and roughly pushed the prickly brambles aside. He got a distinct impression of something silver before he got the wind knocked right out of him as something shoved itself into his midsection. Gasping, the samurai landed hard on his back…on his arm…on his _gashed _arm. Wincing, he gingerly got back up, only to be viciously tackled down once again. The samurai growled, deciding that he had just about _enough _of all this. Swiftly, he got up and expertly pinned his mysterious assailant down to the ground and roughly held him there with his arm painfully twisted around his back.

"Now, who the _hell _are you and why are you attacking me?" Kanda demanded, still holding his attacker down. The said attacker struggled fiercely but the samurai held him down effortlessly….a little_ too_ effortlessly… then, Kanda noticed something odd: his assailant was a mere _child. _Shocked, he hurriedly got off the boy but still maintained his strong grip on the boy's arm…child or not, the boy _had _attacked him and managed to tackle him down _twice_. The samurai's pride had taken a considerable blow so he felt it was perfectly justified that the boy went home to his mummy later on with one or two bruises on his upper arm.

The boy had given up on struggling but remained stoically silent. Growling impatiently, Kanda turned the boy round to face him. He nearly passed out in shock. The stubborn, dirt-streaked little face was eerily _familiar_. Especially his huge, silver blue eyes. _Especially _his snow white hair. Then, Kanda happened to glance down at the hand he had been gripping. It was deep red and scaly. In his immense shock, he abruptly released the hand from his tight grip, his dark eyes wide with astonishment. The boy took the opportunity to escape from this scary stranger. Scrambling slightly, the little boy ran off as fast as his little legs could carry him.

He didn't make it very far. Before he even reached the end of the clearing he was once again pinned down, his face buried in the grassy ground. Kanda roughly pulled the boy up to a sitting position, this time his hand gripping the boy's red one tightly. The more the astounded samurai scrutinized the boy's unique features, the more puzzled he became. The boy had the very same markings around his left eye as a certain bean sprout. And, he seemed to be wearing an extremely oversized black overcoat with silver trimmings. The exorcists' uniform. Kanda drew in a sharp intake of breath, shocked beyond belief.

"Who are you?" he demanded once again, his grip on the boy's arm tightening painfully. To his horror, the boy abruptly burst into terrified tears. As the boy bawled and screamed, tears pouring in great rivers down his cheeks, Kanda noticed with some slight regret that the boy could not have been more than five. He released some pressure on the boy's arm. Comforting a screaming child was not one of the things the samurai was generally known for. Maiming, slicing, kicking akuma butt, terrifying grown men till they wet their pants and glares that could easily melt the Polar ice caps, those were his forte, but soothing bawling brats? He was completely at lost in that department.

He awkwardly patted the little boy on his back and, for the first time in his life, wished Lenalee or Rabi was with him now. However, to his immense shock, the little boy dived straight into his stunned arms and proceeded to wail into the samurai's spotless, creaseless, carefully pressed overcoat. Uneasily, Kanda awkwardly wrapped his arms around the crying child who was gripping the front of his coat like a lifeline. His tears seeped through the thick material of the disgruntled samurai's coat, his tiny frame shuddering in the force of his wails.

They remained in that position for a while, the child sobbing into his arms and him uncomfortably holding the child. A strange emotion stirred within the samurai's heart. Something he hadn't felt in ages…_protectiveness._ He felt as if he would rip out the guts of anyone who dared hurt something this small and fragile. After what seemed like an eternity, the child slowly calmed down enough for fairly comprehensible speech.

"What's your name?" Kanda asked in the gentlest voice he could manage, in other words, a tone which still would've sent terrified shivers down the average adult's spine. However, the child blinked his huge, silver orbs up at the trying-not-to-look-scary-and-failing samurai and replied contritely, "Don't know."

"Where are your parents?" Kanda asked again, trying not to sound impatient….and again…failing. He was more than slightly unnerved at how _familiar _the boy's pre-adolescent soprano voice sounded to him.

"Don't know," the boy replied yet again, still staring into Kanda's dark, brooding eyes.

"Where do you come from?" Kanda was getting tired of this little interrogation session.

"Don't know,"

Kanda tried not to wring the little boy whose vocabulary seemed to only consist of those two infuriating syllables.

"So, why were you hiding?" the samurai tried once more, speaking through clenched teeth.

The boy didn't reply at first, glancing nervously around the clearing as if someone might be hearing. Then he leaned forward and whispered, "Those bad people in white are after me."

"Bad people in white?" Kanda repeated, curious in spite of himself. The child nodded tersely, still looking nervous. He discreetly glanced down at his right leg. Kanda followed his gaze and saw a large, cruel looking gash slashed across the boy's calf. So _that's_ where all the blood droplets were coming from. The samurai felt himself getting slightly sick. Who on earth had the stomach or the heart to inflict such gruesome damage upon a young, defenseless, innocent child like this?

Then again, these were _people_ he was talking about; selfish, self-centered, egoistical beings that cared about nothing but themselves. Growing up in such grim conditions as an exorcist, the samurai had, inevitably, seen the most ugly, desperate side of humanity. It sickened and horrified him in his early years as an exorcist, but as time grew by, it hardened into a cold sort of disdain. Who could blame him for being so cold and distant? Ties, bonds, relationships…. they all came back to bite you in the end.

"Why are they after you?" Kanda asked, more urgently. The boy wrinkled his silver eyebrows together and answered uncertainly, "Something about my 'Innocence'. They talked about the 'Innocence' a lot. What's this 'Innocence'? Is it bad?"

Kanda didn't answer the boy. His mind swirled in confusion. What? So not only does this boy have a cursed eye and a red arm and was clad in a severely oversized exorcists' uniform, he was compatible with the Innocence as well? The coincidences were pilling up to be more than just mere coincidences. Something was going on. Could this brat possibly be…..?

"_Are_ you Allen Walker?" Kanda demanded harshly, grabbing the boy's thin little shoulders roughly. "_Are you?"_

The child gave a cry of pain and tried to wriggle out of Kanda's tight grasp. "I don't know!" he screamed back, still struggling wildly. "Let me go! Let me go!"

Drawing in a ragged breath, Kanda forced himself to calm down and to think clearly. It was obvious that the kid didn't remember anything. But having any connections to Allen or not, this kid was worth looking into. Besides, he was apparently compatible with the Innocence and that in itself was a perfectly valid reason to haul him to the headquarters for further examining. Furthermore, there was the matter of 'the bad people in white.' The phrasing the brat had used made them sound like a group of juvenile neighborhood hooligans with an affinity for white. But according to him, they were apparently very interested in the Innocence. That alone made this dubious group sound very suspicious.

"Get up," Kanda said, making up his mind. He abruptly stood up. "Let's go."

"Go where?" the kid asked curiously but followed the suit nonetheless.

"A safe place," the man growled, shortly. "Hurry up, stupid bean sprout!"

The boy hurriedly stumbled after him and, much to the samurai's slight bewilderment and annoyance, grabbed a fistful of his coat and held on tight. He innocently blinked his huge, silver blue eyes up at the man's displeased scowl, as if it was perfectly normal to go about clinging on to the coats of homicidal, bad tempered samurais.

"Cheh," Kanda muttered irritably under his breath but otherwise not outwardly rebuking the child's cling-ish behavior. The odd pair traveled in silence for a while before the kid tugged slightly on his coat. Scowling the samurai looked down at him. "What?"

"What's your name?" the boy questioned; eyes bright with curiosity.

"Brats like you don't need to know," Kanda replied shortly. After all, soon enough the kid would be out of his hands, right? No need for the kid to get all chummy with him. To his immense relief, he spotted the train station in a distance.

"Why?" the kid just wouldn't give up. "Then, who must I be to know your name?"

"Definitely not you," the irate man muttered through gritted teeth.

"What's wrong with me?" the little boy didn't seem particularly hurt at his biting tones. If anything, he looked merely puzzled and curious. Kanda took one glance at the boy's cursed left eye, his red arm and his oversized uniform and decided not to answer that particular question. He led the boy to the rather rundown train station and stepped into the musty shade. He rapped the ticket counter and a sleepy looking old man drooling on the counter jolted from his slumber.

"Two tickets to London," Kanda ordered, dropping the change onto the counter. He had to catch a train the conventional way now. He doubted the scrawny kid would be up to leaping onto the fenders and he sure wasn't up to scraping the boy's bloody carcass off the windows.

"That kid yours, sir?" the old man's droopy eyes narrowed. You can't be too careful with them kidnappers nowadays. The scowling young man certainly didn't look anything like the father of that frail looking little boy. The samurai effortlessly read the suspicious man's thoughts. Feh. People were so easy to read. How troublesome. Last thing he needed was to draw attention to the appearance of that odd little brat.

"Yes, he is," Kanda lied, easily and emotionlessly. The boy's head jerked up instantly. He casually gave a relatively gentle kick to the boy's right shin, hoping he would get the message. Judging by the confused look splayed on the boy's face, he didn't, but at least he kept quiet. Hopefully, the old man wouldn't notice the wide-eyed stare the kid was giving him. Unsubtle brat….

"What's his name, then?" The old man was inconveniently sharp and persistent. Kanda forced a fatherly smile onto his face, which somewhat resembled a rather vicious dragonish snarl; which, given the circumstances, wasn't very helpful right now. "Allen Walker," the samurai said the first name that came to his uncreative mind. Heavens have mercy on Kanda's future children, in the unlikely event that he would have any.

The kid's stare intensified with an unreadable look in his silver eyes. The old man still eyed the odd pair suspiciously, but seeing that the little boy wasn't objecting or kicking up a fuss, he reluctantly handed the samurai the two tickets. Kanda accepted the tickets with an inward sigh of relief. Without thanking the distrustful old man, he strode away from the ticket booth and to the abandoned, rather dusty-looking looking platform where they were, predictably, the only ones there.

"You're my daddy?" the boy gave the uncomfortable samurai an appraising look. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm not," Kanda replied, stiffly. "I just said so to avoid attracting unnecessary attention to you, you ungrateful brat."

"So, you lied?" the brat gave him a hard look and for some odd reason, Kanda felt mildly uncomfortable.

"Well, I-"

"You lied?" the boy repeated the question, still maintaining his hard stare on him. Kanda frowned in annoyance and said icily, "It was required due to the circum-"

"You lied?" the boy asked yet again, all of a sudden looking very disapproving

"Fine! Yes, I did! _But_-" Kanda felt oddly defensive in the face of the disapproval of a four year old child.

"You lied," the kid decided finally, crossing his arms across his chest and giving the frustrated samurai a very stern look. "Lying is _bad_." Kanda tried to say something, but his stinging reply was drowned out by the arrival of a red, steam locomotive chugging down the tracks and slowly halting in front of them. The boy immediately hopped into the train and dashed in, trying to find an empty compartment.

"Wait up, stupid bean sprout!" Kanda yelled as he hurriedly hopped on too and ran after the boy. The child looked over his shoulder and yelled back,

"My name is Allen Walker!"

* * *

Ignoring the curious looks he got from his fellow exorcists, Kanda walked swiftly towards Komui's office with a little boy in tow. No one questioned him though; everyone had learnt the hard way that Kanda Yuu was a man who loved his own privacy and anyone who dared invade it came out traumatized for the rest of their lives.

Without bothering to knock, Kanda burst into Komui's still paperwork infested office and unceremoniously dumped the wide eyed boy onto Komui's desk…or rather…_on _the paperwork_ on_ Komui's desk, as there wasn't a square inch of the wooden desk that _wasn't _covered with important and most probably over due paperwork. The man that had been snoring into an open page of a gossip magazine jerked awake and hastily pushed up his glasses.

"Oh, hi, Kanda, you're back and – Oh, sweet mother of- _what the hell is this_? Is it – dear gods, no!!!- Lenalee's illegitimate child with that blasted, dirty, low-down, foul swine?!" screamed Komui in shock as soon as he caught sight of the child peering timidly at him over the stacks of paperwork. "WHERE IS HE? I'll castrate that bloody bastard who dared touch my precious, pure Lenalee!! I'll break every bone in his body and stuff his filthy throat with explosives!!! Then, I'll stomp on his remains until they turn into dust….and then I'll stomp on it _again _until all traces of that worthless, damned, shameless monster is wiped from the face of the earth!! And _then_-"

At this point, Kanda decided he should put a stop to all this. The machine gun the enraged older brother was very energetically waving around was emotionally scarring the poor little kid who had jumped off the desk in terror and was currently huddled tremblingly behind the samurai's legs.

"Calm down. It's _not_ Lenalee's child," Kanda rolled his eyes in impatience. Oh, the lengths he went through in his line of work. "This-"

"Now that you think about it, he looks rather a lot like Allen-kun, doesn't he?" Kanda said, calming down considerably while he processed the fact that his darling little sister was still pure. He peered at what he could see of the child who had his head burrowed behind Kanda's knee. Then, his eyes widened. "Could it be that-that-"

Finally he gets it. Kanda thought, dryly.

"That-That- oh, sweet heavens, Kanda. _What on earth_ have you and Allen-kun been _doing_ lately? What have you been thinking? Tsk, tsk, fathering an illegitimate child _with _a child…. wouldn't have thought you had it in you," Komui shook his head in stern disapproval. "And what have you _done_ to poor Allen-kun in the tender age of fifteen! You should have known better! Teenagers with their loopy hormones and all, but _you _are an adult. You should be responsible enough to have stopped your little _affair _with Allen-kun before it got out of hand…. before it resulted in _this _little boy right here."

Kanda felt his jaw drop open in pure horror and shock. Seriously, he had to get that magazine chopped to bits and burned and its ashes scattered into the winds. It had already successfully screwed up Komui's already screwed up mind.

"Before I proceed to impale Mugen into your thick skull, might I remind you that 1: I am a guy. 2: Bean sprout is a guy. 3: I don't swing that way. 4: Even if I _did_, believe me, next to you, the bean sprout would be the very _last _man on earth on my list. 5: Even if for some freakish reason that Bean Sprout _was_ in my list, _guys don't get_ _freakin' pregnant_!!!"

At this point, the boy got a little bolder as he shuffled timidly towards the desk to get a better look at the scary machine gun wielding guy. His head barely skimmed the edge of the table. He stood on tiptoe with his large, silver eyes peering up curiously at the odd scene where Kanda was trying to shove Mugen into a shrieking Komui's neck. Grown-ups were weird…..

Suddenly, Komui caught sight of the kid's red arm, markings, and oversized exorcist coat. His eyes widened and he dropped down to his knees to get a better look at the boy. The boy steadily stared back with familiar silver eyes.

"Kanda," Komui breathed, eyes scanning every familiar feature of the child from his snowy white hair to his silver blue eyes. "What on earth is this?"

"I was hoping you could tell me,"

* * *

Down at the lab, Komui did a series of tests on the little boy who, for a boy his age, was being quite patient with all the poking and prodding done to his body. Komui frowned to himself as he read the results of the tests.

"His DNA is a match to Allen-kun," he announced finally, a perplexed look on his face. "And his fingerprints are a match too. There's no doubt about it; this kid is definitely Allen Walker."

Kanda groaned into his hands. More complications. Useless, troublesome brat. The now proclaimed Allen Walker cocked his head in puzzlement but said nothing. By the way he kept yawning and rubbing his eyes; the kid was getting tired, which was understandable after an eventful day like that.

"How about his Innocence?" Kanda asked, frowning. Komui glanced up at the samurai. Kanda had already filled him in on the 'bad people in white' who were apparently after the Innocence. The head of the science department gently nudged the little boy who was slowly dozing off.

"Allen-kun, I need you to do something for me," he said, softly. Allen blearily opened his eyes and glanced expectantly at Komui. He took this as a signal to continue.

"I need you to activate your Innocence for me, if you can," Komui requested, watching the boy intently for any sort of reaction. Allen merely looked lost and confused. "What's my Innocence?" he asked, baffled. "And how does it work?"

"Your red arm over here. Concentrate on it and say 'Innocence activate,'" Komui instructed, pointing at Allen's red arm for emphasis. The little boy stared blankly at the older man, who, as far as he was concerned, wasn't making any sense.

"Just do it, brat," Kanda ordered, gruffly. Allen gave Kanda a quick glance and stared down at his arm as if he expected roses to suddenly pop up. "Innocence, activate!" he squeaked, scrutinizing at his arm. Nothing happened. Komui and Kanda exchanged a brief look before turning back to the dismayed little boy.

"It's alright, Allen-kun," Komui said soothingly, although his forehead was creased in worry and bafflement. Allen sensed his worry and timidly patted the older man's hand. Komui jumped slightly at the light contact and looked down at the little boy. Allen beamed widely at him, his silver eyes lighting up cheerily as if telling him in his own way to cheer up and not to worry. And despite the seriousness of the situation, Komui felt his heart soften. No matter what shape or form he was in, Allen-kun was still Allen-kun after all.

"You're going to be fine, right, Allen-kun?" Komui ruffled the boy's white hair affectionately. Allen smiled back brightly and nodded. Komui turned to Kanda and said, "I'll leave Allen-kun under your care. You'll be excused from all missions until we find a cure of Allen-kun's predicament."

"What? _Why_?" the annoyed samurai demanded incredulously.

"Daddy?" Allen tilted his head in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"_Don't _call me daddy!" Kanda snapped at the little boy.

"He calls you _daddy_," Komui simpered. "Isn't that ever _so _sweet?"

Kanda felt himself bristle with infuriation and annoyance. He glared coldly at Komui and spat back, "I didn't become an exorcist to _baby sit_. I've been sent to do some pretty weird and pointless missions but I draw the line at babysitting. I've got bigger and more important things to do than to sit around and play nanny with a four year old brat. Ask Lenalee or Ravi. They're better with kids anyway."

"But, Kanda, Allen-kun's already so _attached _to you," Komui wheedled. "And besides, Lenalee's off on a mission and seriously, would you trust a four year old child with Ravi?"

That, Kanda reluctantly decided, was a pretty good point. But why _him_? "No, I'm not going to look after the brat and that's final. Get a pathfinder to do it or something. We're already understaffed in the exorcists department as it is. And the akumas are getting more and more frisky lately. You can't possibly afford to keep an exorcist out of his duties for some meaningless, menial task."

"Looking after your comrade is a meaningless, menial task?" Komui asked quietly, suddenly looking very grave and stern.

"Looking after my comrade would do nothing to stop the Earl of Millennium," Kanda replied, steadily. "And that, if I remember correctly, is what we exorcists are _supposed _to do, isn't that right, Supervisor Komui?"

'Allen-kun wouldn't have thought so, you know," Komui said in the same quiet voice, surveying the samurai coolly from behind his spectacles. Then, he glanced sadly at the now slumbering little boy with his body curled up tightly into a ball. "Exorcists are supposed to save the world from destruction. How can you save the world when you can't even save your own comrade?"

"Such things are just pure narcissism. Merely a self-gratifying act. Meaningless to the greater purpose," Kanda retorted, angrily.

"Ah, saving a life is pure narcissism, now is it?" Komui demanded, with clenched fists.

"If saving the particular life brings no merit to the destruction of the Earl, then _yes_, it is. Exorcists are destroyers, not saviors," Kanda snapped. Komui was about to reply angrily, but a sudden movement from Allen distracted both of them. Both men glanced down at the little boy. Allen was still fast asleep but he was mumbling something indistinct under his breath. Both of them leaned in and listened intently.

"- Kanda, I want to be a destroyer who saves people,"

Kanda's eyes widened. He recognized that phrase. Allen had said something like it once before during their first mission together. A flashback, maybe? But what a horrible timing for such a wimpy phrase. Kanda gritted his teeth together as he felt Komui's gaze burn into the side of his lowered head.

"Allen-kun would've done the same for you if the roles were reversed, you know," Komui commented, in an airy voice. Kanda swore silently under his breath. He grunted, "Isn't the Headquarters safe enough for the brat to live in without an armed babysitter? No one would be foolish enough to attack the boy while he's here." Kanda winced inwardly. Even to himself, he sounded like a procrastinating student giving his teacher pathetic excuses for not doing his homework.

"Because we don't know who or what we're up against," Komui explained, patiently. "We don't know who the 'bad people in white' are or where they operate or what they're after. For all we know they could have spies within this very place. Because of that, Allen-kun needs to be supervised 24/7 for his own safety, especially now when he's so vulnerable."

To his annoyance, Kanda felt himself slowly, but surely caving in. Sighing in frustration he mumbled indistinctly, "Fine."

"What's that?"

"Fine!" Kanda exploded. "But only until Lenalee returns from her mission. Then it's _her_ turn to be stuck on babysitting duty."

"Fair enough," Komui grinned, triumphantly. Kanda sent him a dark scowl. "Why me?" he asked, bitterly.

"Because you're such a responsible young man and Allen-kun looks up to you _ever _so much," Komui said, barely containing his amusement. "And besides, what else do we do for entertainment around here?"

* * *

Kanda marched out with little Allen nestled in his arms, still fast asleep. The samurai noted darkly that even while he was in his four year old form, certain habits still remained. Drooling, for one.

Suddenly, a whirl of red dashed down the hallway and halted with a loud screech in front of them. Ravi's emerald eyes widened as he saw the little bundle cuddled up comfortably in the sullen samurai's arms.

"So the rumors are true; Allen-kun somehow got turned back into a kid and you're assigned to look after him," Ravi gasped, incredulously. Kanda didn't even bother asking him where he found that out. The young book-man in training knew practically _everything _that went on in and out the Headquarters. The red-headed exorcist had once informed him when Lenalee's menstrual period was and that Reever only changed his underwear once a month. Kanda didn't even want to know _how _he found that out.

"Shove it," Kanda said, roughly. Ravi winked cheerily at him, "Now, now. Can't go using coarse language around the baby, can't we, Nanny Yuu-chan?"

"Shut up," Kanda muttered through gritted teeth. His arms trembled slightly in rage. The movement stirred the little boy from his slumber.

"Daddy?" he slowly opened his silver eyes blearily and yawned. "Who's that?"

"He calls you _daddy_," Ravi noted, his leering smirk a mile wide with his green eyes dancing in amusement. "Whoa, dude. That's _kinky_. Never knew you were one of _those _types."

Kanda distinctly felt something snap.

"Daddy?" Allen looked up at the scowling samurai as they stomped off, leaving behind a choking Ravi with his trademark bandanna shoved into his mouth. "What does kinky mean?"

Kanda had the sudden urge to turn back and shove the bandanna into somewhere a _little_ more painful.

* * *

So? How was it?? I'll reveal how Allen got turned into a four year old in the next chapter. Until then, I'll let you readers puzzle it out on your own. Bwaahahahahaha! Please, please review and tell me what you think about it! Cheers! 


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry about the late chapter, people. And wow, thanks a bunch to all you wonderful, fantastic people who reviewed!! It really cheered me on to get off my lazy butt and to hunch over my desktop to type out this new chapter :) Anyway, on to chapter 2!

* * *

_Allen cursed under his breath in a manner that would've made Kanda proud. He was sure he had blasted through at least a hundred of those cursed blobs of metal but they never seemed to decrease in number. They mostly consisted of level one akumas but Allen could feel his stamina slowly sapping away as more and more akumas eagerly leaped in to join the battle._

_He could feel his vision blurring and his arms and legs going numb. He could hardly hold up his anti-akuma weapon without his arm trembling and aching in protest. Even a simple task like leaping away to avoid getting shot, something he had always performed with relative ease in the past, took up twice as much energy as usual._

_But whenever he felt so exhausted that he couldn't take it any longer, he would feel the samurai's disdainful glare at the back of his head that simply screamed, "Keep fighting, you useless little bean sprout. If you ever give up, I swear, if the akumas don't do your pansy little butt in, _I _will!"_

_And thus, the young white haired exorcist would grit his teeth and receive a new burst of energy. There was absolutely_ no_ way he was going to fall in front of Kanda Yuu, of all people. The samurai wouldn't show him any sympathy; he wouldn't coddle him and tell him it's all right as long as he tried his best; he wouldn't even bother telling him to try harder. In the samurai's black and white mind, only the strong are fit to survive. The weak are parasites that burden the strong. Therefore, the weak do not deserve to live. _

_So, Allen refused to cave in and expose his weak side to Kanda. Despite his annoyance at how utterly cold and sharp the samurai was with words, Allen respected him. And he worked hard in order to gain the samurai's respect in return. _

_The young boy smashed through yet another akuma and tried to suppress the numbing ache in his arm. Setting his teeth, he bent his sore knees and prepared to leap up to get to a particularly huge akuma hovering menacingly above him. However, just before his feet left the ground, he felt a blinding pain at the back of his neck. Vision blurring in pain; he fell back hard onto the ground with a groan. A split second before passing out, he spotted a white hooded figure standing over him. The hood fell back and the last thing Allen saw was a cold, taunting leer._

* * *

The first thing to do, as Komui had suggested, was to give the brat a wash. After crawling through countless brambles, branches, and undergrowths to escape the unknown 'bad people in white', the kid wasn't exactly the most appealing thing to look at right now. Especially without the large, innocent, smoky eyes to light up his dirt-streaked face because it was, incidentally, closed. The brat was currently snoozing in a certain grumpy samurai's increasingly wet arms. 

Kanda made a mental note to wrap up the brat's face within layers and layers of cloth the next time the brat had the urge to sleep in his arms. Even if that didn't stop the flow of drool, Kanda might get lucky and the kid would suffocate and die.

It was only that one comforting thought that stopped the disgruntled samurai from flinging the drooling brat out of the nearest window.

There were, in total, two public baths in the headquarters. They were made into a traditional kind of hot spring style and were very comfortable and relaxing especially after a long, tiring mission.

For the girls, anyway.

You see, the baths were separated based on gender (Komui had been _very, very _specific on what fate would befall on any male who dared taint the purity of his beloved little sister.) One bath was strictly for the ladies and vice versa. However, as there were very little females permanently living in the headquarters, including Lenalee and Miranda, the female bath was empty for most parts.

As the male population in the headquarters was probably around ten times more than the female population, there was usually a general daily struggle and battle to the death to get a square inch's worth of unoccupied water space in the male bath. Of course, this was a crisis that could've been easily remedied if the gentlemen in the headquarters fully comprehended the meaning of the phrase '_queuing up'_ or also known as '_refraining oneself from bashing one's companion to get ahead of the line.'_

But, boys will be boys, no?

Only the brave, the persistent, and the worthy manage to infiltrate through the masses of testosterone pumped, sweat, grimy and usually foul smelling males that were continuously struggling outside the bath entrance and emerge victorious into the holy waters. Then, after getting all shiny and clean again, they would, inevitably, get all grimy and sweaty and foul smelling _again _trying to get _out _of the bath _through _the disgruntled masses _still_ crowding outside the bath.

And thus, a never ending cycle would repeat.

Don't even get me started on the toilets. Trust me, it's not pretty….Let's just say a fair number of males would rather dig holes out in the gardens and do their businesses out there and then rather than attempt to use the male's restroom in the headquarters.

And whenever a guest would comment on the flourishing greenery in the gardens and asks to know of its secret of success, the unfortunate guide in charge would simply titter and change the subject.

So you can imagine what a dilemma Kanda faced right about now. A bloody, brutal bathroom war was no place for a young, weak little brat like Allen. Kanda simply wasn't even in the mood to whip out Mugen to scare off the other competitors vying for the use of the bath. Leaving the brat dirty and grimy would've been less troublesome and ideal but, being the anal retentive neat freak he was, Kanda could not tolerate the slightest bit of dinginess within his line of vision.

Since he was going to look after the brat, he would have to look at him a lot, so he might as well make the brat look halfway presentable.

As he approached the men's bath, predictably, a mini riot was already lighting up. Sighing in frustration, Kanda tried glaring his best, iciest and most homicidal glare at the masses, hoping they would get the not-so-subtle message to clear out.

However, it seemed that their yearning for a bath was more powerful than their instinct for self-preservation because all of them ignored the dangerous, dagger-like glares being flung into their direction from the displeased samurai.

Kanda Yuu was not a person who liked being ignored. Feared maybe, avoided even, but never ignored.

How dare those ignorant fools ignore Kanda Yuu?

Resisting the urge to impale Mugen into their slimy, sweaty heads, Kanda fought to think up a more creative solution.

"Hey, fools," he called out suddenly. "Komui finally approved of the idea of having mixed baths. The female bath is now open for the men as well."

There was a moment of silence. Kanda smirked inwardly as he saw a ray of purest sunlight illuminate each of their grimy faces. He could've sworn he heard the Hallelujah Chorus being played in the background. The look of pure bliss and happiness on their faces spoke of men who had died and gone to heaven.

Kanda was not surprised to find the entire male bath area empty within a blink of an eye. With a smirk of victory, he stepped into the cold, porcelain floors of the bath.

"Did Komui-san really say that?" little Allen tilted his head in a way that appeared both adorably curious and shrewd. Kanda glanced down at the little boy in his soaking arms curiously. Wasn't the boy supposed to be asleep? Then again, the rioting men were making quite a bit of noise….

"Nope," Kanda replied without a shard of guilt whatsoever. "But it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to it when he finds out."

To Kanda's slight surprise, the boy giggled in response. Who would have thought sweet, innocent Allen had an inner evil streak?

"You sweat a lot," the brat commented, staring at the samurai's thoroughly soaked sleeves. "I couldn't sleep properly because of it."

Kanda gritted his teeth in annoyance. That…cursed….brat…..!!! He had the impudence to dare _sleep _in his arms then he goes ahead and _drools_ all over him and then he has the nerve to _complain _about it?

The samurai unceremoniously dropped the kid into the warm bath. Allen landed with a splash and he stood up, spluttering slightly. The surface of the water came up high to his neck. It would seem the bath wasn't deep enough for a four year old boy to drown in, much to Kanda's not-so-slight regret.

"I'll go change my uniform because _somebody _had been drooling on it for the past hour," Kanda glowered at the oblivious little boy. "Stay here and take your bath."

"Wait!" Allen called out, waving his little hands in the air. "_How _do you take a bath?"

Kanda froze in a mid-step. Oh…Dear…Gods…No. He was _not _going to _scrub _that vile kid clean. Nope. Never. Argh, perhaps he should get a rubber ducky while he was at it?

Kanda whirled around and faced the child. He held up a bar of soap.

"This is the soap. This is the water. Figure. It. Out,"

With those incredibly helpful and four year old-friendly instructions, the samurai left the bewildered little boy alone in a bath with nothing but a bar of soap.

Anyhow, what's the worst the brat can do with a bar of soap?

* * *

"You _ate _the soap," 

Little Allen nodded in slight puzzlement. Was that not how soap was supposed to be used?

"You ate the _soap_,"

Again, the boy nodded. Kanda twitched his eyebrows as he resisted the urge to dunk the brat's white head into the water. Maybe all that water might fill up his empty head or something.

"What in the name of heavens possessed you to _eat _the _soap_?" Kanda was still incredulous. Surely there _had_ to be a limit how brainless a person can be.

Oh wait; this was Allen Walker he was talking about….a _four year_ _old_ Allen Walker at that. Not a good combination in the brain department. Kanda breathed in deeply. Stay calm….stay cool…killing the brat _would_ bring temporary satisfaction and peace but then he would have to think of how he would dispose of the body…. and in a rocky cliff where they lived, the choices were limited.

"How else would you use the soap then?" the little brat looked infuriatingly condescending. As if he, ironically, was explaining something to a rather dense four year old.

"I don't know. Rub it against your body maybe?" Kanda bit back, sarcastically. "I go out for just a minute to change into drool free clothes and I come back to find out that you, being the precious little genius you are, ate the _soap_."

"You told me to figure out how to use it," Allen pointed out, crossing his little arms obstinately.

"Yes, and I'm sure that the most logical course of action given the circumstances was to _eat the soap_," Kanda growled through gritted teeth. Honestly, it was one thing to do the most universally stupid thing on earth and grovel for forgiveness afterwards but it was another to do the most universally stupid thing on earth and start a debate on the matter altogether with the person who is _so obviously_ right.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm tough," the brat beamed confidently at him…. right before he went green and threw up on Kanda's new, clean, and drool-free uniform.

Oh, blasted joy…

* * *

"Don't worry, Kanda," Komui said, presently. "Allen-kun has a mild case of food poisoning. Nothing to worry about." 

"Worry? Who's worrying?" Kanda snapped, his eyebrows twitching homicidally.

"Now, now, you know deep down inside you're worried about the boy," Komui sang gaily. He hummed cheerfully as he set about taking the boy's temperature. Kanda resisted the urge to fling his vomit soiled uniform right into Komui's disgustingly cheerful face.

"Oh yes. I'm beside myself with worry for a brat who freaking _threw up _on me," Kanda scowled icily in response. He was wearing a plain white yukata as he gingerly held his soiled uniform in his arms.

"There, see? That wasn't so hard to admit, now was it?" Komui grinned happily. "Denial is a very unhealthy thing, Kanda. Besides, it _is _just vomit. It's nothing too bad."

"Then why don't you try it some day?" Kanda said in a poisonously pleasant voice.

"Well, we'll see if you can get the kid to eat soap again then," Komui beamed back.

"Anyway, it's not _just _the vomit," Kanda muttered. "The kid drooled on me."

"That's not that bad," Komui said, distractedly. He was rummaging through the first aid drawer.

"I repeat: That brat drooled. _On me,_" Kanda growled, scowling down at his soiled uniform.

"First drool and then vomit," Komui nodded. Then, he turned to the annoyed samurai with that disgustingly cheery grin on his face again, "It's that wonderful display of variety that makes life so magical, don't you think?"

Kanda snapped and lobbed the soiled uniform right into Komui's sniggering face.

* * *

"You're mad at me, aren't you?" Allen timidly tugged at Kanda's white yukata.

"Gee, you think?" Kanda scowled in response, refusing to look down at those huge blue gray eyes that held a pathetic look of a kicked puppy.

"I don't know. I think you are, but are you?" Allen replied pensively, missing the sarcasm completely.

Kanda did not even bother replying. He quickened his pace, hoping to dislodge the brat's clingy hands but Allen stubbornly kept up with his pace and refused to let go.

Persistent brat….well, since he's so set on sticking to him like glue, let's see how much he likes it after a nice, long stroll.

And what a stroll it was. Kanda walked around the whole area of the headquarters. Considering its size, that's quite saying something. He led Allen through the quiet sleeping quarters, through the dining hall where an overly enthusiastic Jerry nearly huggled a traumatized Allen to death and across the huge gardens with all its flourishing greenery. Then, he took the kid to a trip round the wide training floors, around the practice fields, through the cozy living room, up the lounge, around the enormous, voluminous library with its dusty shelves galore and through the science department filled with stacks of coffee-stained paperwork and scientists with dark bags under their eyes. Then, he inspected the dusty attics located high up in the various towers and explored the grimy, abandoned dungeon located deep underneath the headquarters itself.

Kanda could tell the kid was exhausted but Allen only tightened his hold on the older samurai's yukata and walked on with quick strides to keep up with Kanda's longer ones with his little face scrunched up in determination. The samurai's keen ears caught the faint, telltale panting coming from the weak little brat who, he could tell, was trying all he could to suppress it.

"Why don't you just give up?" Kanda said finally, exasperated. They were now in the courtyard and the brat's already pale face was turning into an alarming shade of white.

"I don't want to," Allen panted, his little chest heaving visibly in exhaustion. He bent over slightly and leaned one hand against his wobbly knee for support as he panted for breath.

"Why not?" the samurai asked, annoyed. Although it killed him to admit it, he was getting slightly worried about the brat's increasingly white face and wobbling limbs.

"I don't know," Allen replied breathlessly, his pale face shining in perspiration. "I-I just know that I have to-I have to keep on walking. That I can't stop- not now, not ever."

Then he looked up at the speechless samurai and grinned weakly, "Isn't that weird? It's as if I made a promise to someone I can't remember or something."

Kanda snorted derisively. He noted how the brat's legs were shaking slightly in fatigue, threatening to collapse at any second. However, the boy straightened them resolutely and looked up at Kanda stubbornly.

"Where to know?"

Kanda stared at the tired little boy, stunned for one brief moment. Then, he quickly composed himself and smirked, "One more place. Are you up to it?"

Despite the wobbly legs, stark white face, short breaths and face shining in perspiration, Allen grinned back, "You bet."

* * *

"Wow!" Allen gasped, leaning over the ridge excitedly with his legs dangling dangerously above the old stone tiles.

"Oi, be careful," the samurai hurriedly pulled the eager kid down before he could kill himself with a hundred feet drop down the cliff.

"The view here is amazing!" Allen stared out with sparkling eyes, his fatigue seemingly forgotten. "It's so pretty!"

Kanda leaned against the ridge as well and stared out at the scenery laid out before them. It was almost past sunset now. The dusky light gave a mysterious, purplish glow with a hint of cheery crimson to the peaceful towns and countryside that lay beneath it. The shadows cast in the dusky light both contrasted and blended in with the evening glow in a strange but beautiful way.

The roof was Kanda's favourite place to be in the headquarters. He went there whenever he had any free time which, given the recent increase of akumas and the trouble brewing with the Noahs, was very seldom nowadays. He missed coming up here. It was probably the only place in the headquarters that he felt really at home in, as odd as that may sound. He had been living in the headquarters in this foreign country for years.

Although he accepted and lived in this country with ease for years and years now, every now and then, he would feel a pang to return home to his own beautiful native country. It happened less and less frequently over the years but it happened all the same. Whenever it happened, the samurai would quietly climb up to the roof to stare at the sky. It helped calm him down somehow.

Because wherever you are, the sky remained the same. It's the same sky that envelopes each and every continent and each and every country. The samurai felt oddly comforted by the fact that no matter how far away he was now, he was still under the same sky as his beloved country.

He told no one about this, of course, and no one knew anything about his secret visits to the roof.

Until now.

The brat was still silently staring at the scenery with a wide-eyed look of awe in his huge silver eyes. He had somehow climbed up and was now sitting on top of the ridge with his legs dangling over the other side in a way that would've made Lenalee go quite faint if she ever saw him.

"Daddy?" Allen said presently, breaking the peaceful silence.

"_Don't_ call me that," the samurai scowled deeply in response, uncomfortably remembering what Lavi had commented on that particular nickname.

"Then what do I call you?" Allen turned his head towards the irritable samurai next to him.

"I don't know. Kanda or something," the older exorcist shrugged, uncomfortably.

"Oh, so now I'm finally good enough to know your name, am I, Kanda-san?" the brat commented, grinning impishly.

"Don't flatter yourself," Kanda smirked back. "And it's Kanda-sama to you, bean sprout."

"And it's Allen Walker to you, Kanda-sama,"

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere in the headquarters, very happy men were comfortably sprawled in the female bath, which was empty, much to the disappointment of the dear, depraved and desperate male members of the Black Order. Never mind…their imagination more than compensated for that. The women would soon be very surprised to find their bath water stained with blood.

"Just imagine," one young pathfinder (spouting blood out of both nostrils) commented to his fellow nose-bleeding buddy, "we're lying in the very same waters Lenalee-chan has blessed with her beautiful, lush, soft, generous body. I think I can die happy now."

"And _I _think I may be able to assist you with that," a dark aura enveloped the entire bath area. The men had a foreboding sense of impending doom. "Care to repeat the part of my dear baby sister's 'lush, soft body'?"

And when Kanda heard the shrill screams all the way up from the roof, he smirked and said nothing.

* * *

The dining hall was packed. Kanda deeply regretted not going in later after the initial dinner rush because the damned brat was attracting all sorts of unwanted attention from the exorcists and pathfinders and scientists alike.

"He's so cute!" a pathfinder squealed, being the hundredth person to say this. Honestly, can't they come up with something more original? Illiterate fools….

The brat was passed around and cuddled like a puppy in a playground full of grabby little children. Kanda felt a slight twinge of pity for the boy who looked as if he was going to suffocate with all the unwanted attention.

"He's so adorable!"

"Look at those huge, lovable eyes!"

"Kawaii!!!"

"Allen-chan, you little heartbreaker!"

"Aww! Did you see? He smiled at me! So cute!"

"Look at the little sweetheart!"

"I've died and gone to heaven, haven't I? He's so sweet!"

"Just look at his big, googly eyes! The little angel!"

"Argh! I can just _eat _him alive!"

The scariest part was….the majority of his newly founded fan club who were spouting all this highly embarrassing stuff as written in the above were…..males.

Kanda began to worry slightly about the boy's rather ominous looking future.

Jerry _insisted _on preparing an eight-course meal for the brat and frankly, Allen wasn't complaining. He finished the entire meal before Kanda had gone through half of his own bowl of soba and cheerfully requested for more dessert. It looked as if being a four year old didn't diminish his humongous appetite in the least.

Where does all that food go? Kanda shuddered slightly as the little boy wiped out a huge bowl of pudding within seconds and gaily asked for more from the ever-enthusiastic Jerry. And how on earth does the brat stay so scrawny? Maybe there was some sort of complicated scientific hypothesis that if one consumes food fast enough, it would actually bypass the stomach completely.

And judging from the incredible speed in which food was disappearing from the brat's plate, the hypothesis would most definitely qualify as a theory. Now all the samurai needed to present this amazing discovery to the other scientists was a few dozen complicated equations that neither he nor the other scientists understood but because the string of incomprehensible gibberish looked so darn smart, the scientists would be most impressed and he might even receive a Nobel Prize for his efforts. Screw Einstein and his theory of relativity…his theory was _way _better.

The samurai mentally thumped his head hard. Argh, he _definitely_ needed a holiday after this mission before he lost his mind completely.

"Kanda-san, are you all right?" Allen was looking at him curiously. "Those chopsticks have been in your mouth for the past twenty minutes."

"I'm fine," the samurai muttered, glaring down at the offending chopsticks.

"Yuu-chan!"

Kanda cringed inwardly in horror. Oh no, he can't deal with that irritating fool…not now while his sanity was threatening to shatter at any second. Maybe if he willed for the presence of the dimwitted, red-haired baboon to disappear hard enough…

"Yuu-chan"

He heard nothing. Nope. Nothing at all. Ah, silence was such a beautiful thing…

"Yuu-chan?"

Nope. Nothing. Concentrate on the silence, Kanda Yuu…

"Yuu-chan…."

Concentrate, concentrate. You hear absolutely nothing but sweet, wonderful, absolute-

"….you spilt your soba…"

-undisturbed, uninterrupted, peaceful sil- wait what!

"…all over yourself. Those burns look painful, by the way,"

For the sake of the rating, I shall not attempt to type out what our dear, irritable samurai had so articulately responded to that particular remark.

Allen Walker, innocence lost at four years old…Mana Walker would be turning in his grave.

* * *

"This is your room, bean sprout," a scowling Kanda gestured to the rather bare room. "Do you need me to spell out what you do in a bedroom in case you eat the table lamp or something?"

"Of course I won't!" an indignant little Allen Walker replied, with crossed arms. He quite failed to achieve the threatening affect he had been aiming for. His size, or lack thereof, might have had something to do with it.

"Fine, then. Good night," Kanda turned to leave the room. Then, he tilted his head slightly to glare at the little boy. "Make sure you don't throw up on me again first thing in the morning, you hear?"

But before the older exorcist could step out of the room and into temporary freedom, a tiny hand darted out and clutched at his own large, calloused hand.

Sighing in irritation, the scowling samurai turned around once more to face the boy who was fidgeting uncomfortably under his heavy glower, "What now, brat?"

"Story!" blurted out the brat, suddenly.

"What?" the samurai asked, blankly.

"You need to tell me a bedtime story," the little brat glared up stubbornly at the horrified exorcist.

"You're kidding me," Kanda said, looking positively appalled.

"Nope," the brat replied, still refusing to let go of his hand. "I need a story or I can't sleep tonight."

"Just stand right there for a couple of hours and you're bound to pass out sooner or later," Kanda said dismissively as he tugged his hand free and hurriedly moved to the door- to freedom! He was almost out, but he made a mistake of looking back at the boy.

Allen had the most pathetic, heart-wrenching look in his big, expressive silver eyes. He looked up piteously at the struggling samurai and held his heartbreaking gaze until-

"Geerghhh!!! Fine!" Kanda exploded, caving in at last. He glared daggers at the delighted brat who sat down on his bed and looked up at him in anticipation. Sighing in defeat, the samurai sat down on the chair opposite the bed and wrecked his mind for an appropriate story.

Now, what stories had he heard of before? Those pathetic little fairy tales with princesses and knights? Not likely. Maybe the ones he had heard from Ravi when they went out on missions together? The samurai blushed slightly. Nope. Absolutely _not _for a four-year-old child. Besides, the brat wouldn't get any of the not-so-innocent innuendos and puns in _those_ particular stories.

Ah, salvation!

Kanda triumphantly dug into his pocket and brought out a small, worn-looking book with a plain, brown cover. He usually read it whenever he had to take long trips in trains during missions to deter the pathfinders or his assigned partner to attempt talking to him.

The near faded title read, "_The Art of the Sword_."

Allen leaned forward in anticipation as Kanda uncomfortably opened the book and began to read aloud in a monotonous voice, "_The howling winds spoke of wild winter nights. Yet, it was only spring with winter naught but a fading dream. The dark green grass, shyly reaching up for the blue, spring skies were marred with the crimson hues of blood. The dainty meadow, fresh after its long nap during the harsh winters, was blemished with the presence of lifeless bodies littering its bountiful glory. Blood stained swords scattered around the bodies like common bits of brambles, doomed to rot along with their owners they so bravely fought along with. Tales of their noble deeds would soon decay and die out, along with the vulnerable flesh of their lifeless owners. The_-"

"That's _boring_," Allen complained, pouting, "I'm falling asleep already!"

"That's kind of the point, isn't it," Kanda pointed out in response, frowning at the little boy who had evidently no appreciation for fine literature at all.

"No," the brat shook his head violently. "I want a better story!"

"Deal with it, then," the samurai lost the last shreds of his patience. He stood up, carefully tucked his precious book into his pocket and stood up to leave. The samurai marched out of the room in annoyance without giving the brat any time to respond.

Kanda angrily marched down the dimly lit stone passageways. How dare that brat…he had been marginally nice enough to even bother reading to him and was he thankful? Nooooo. To add to the insult, the insolent, illiterate _four-year-old _brat who somehow worked out the logic of eating freaking _soap _even had the nerve to criticize _his_ superior choice of reading material!

The irritated samurai passed by the open doors of Komui's paperwork infested office and was surprised to find it empty. The scientist was usually there during that time of the night, seemingly doing his paperwork, but usually procrastinating and designing his latest edition of the Komurins or playing tic-tac-toe with himself. Kanda glanced into the office, and suddenly spotted something lying innocently on several stacks of paperwork on the desk.

Should he?

The samurai struggled internally with himself for a while before he cursed under his breath and finally grabbed the item. Sighing wearily, he walked back to Allen's room with loud, heavy stomps. The brat had better be pretty darned grateful for this…

Kanda roughly flung open the door without even bothering to knock. He stood there, stunned for a moment, scanning the room for any sign of its small, white haired occupant. There was none. The slightly unnerved samurai opened the closet, checked under the table and even outside the window… nothing. Kanda stood there, annoyed and a little worried. The kid hadn't went out of his room to wander about, did he? The headquarters was not a very safe place for a four-year-old brat, especially one as naïve and clueless as Allen.

The exorcist cursed the brat aloud for several seconds then he hurriedly turned to walk out of the room. The brat couldn't have gone that far …maybe he hadn't even left the passageway yet. However, before he stepped out of the room, his sharp eyes caught the slight fluttering of the bed sheets though there was no wind present in the room. Slowly, he approached the bed in small, quiet steps. The samurai had a sudden, brief impression of déjà vu before he roughly pulled the plain white bed sheets aside.

Under the bed, all huddled up and shivering with his face pressed tightly into his drawn up knees, laid a small, snowy haired figure. Kanda sighed in exasperation as he reached out with a careful finger to poke the little, huddling form. Allen immediately looked up with wide, panicky eyes. He stared blankly at the scowling samurai who was in a very uncomfortable position with his whole body bent down to peer under the bed. The pair of them stared at each other in silence for a while.

Then Kanda finally spoke, "Oi, bean sprout. In general, people usually sleep _on_ their beds."

Suddenly, the spell was broken and the little boy hurriedly crawled out from under the bed and leaped straight into a surprised samurai's arms. Kanda, thoroughly winded, was hit with an uncomfortable wave of déjà vu again. He glared down at the small form that was huddling into him.

"Brat, I'm giving you five seconds to let go," Kanda glowered at the boy in annoyance. "One, two-"

Allen immediately jumped back. The samurai slowly stood up and dusted himself clean. Then, he regarded the unusually lost looking little boy with a frown.

"Care to explain what on earth were you doing under your bed?"

"Those bad people in white might come after me!" blurted out the small boy. He refused to meet the samurai's irritated stare. Kanda, not being the most sensitive person on earth, merely stared back blankly in response.

Oh, great. The brat had a phobia now, on top of all things. This was going to make his job _so_ much easier…

"Those bad people in white won't be stupid enough to get you while you're in the headquarters," Kanda replied curtly. "Stop being such a sissy, bean sprout. You were already sissy enough when you were a teenager."

Allen nodded silently in response, probably not even hearing a word of that wonderfully comforting advice. Kanda was about to turn to leave before he suddenly remembered why he had taken a detour back here in the first place.

"Sit," he ordered. The kid looked startled but quickly scrambled onto the bed all the same. He looked up expectantly at the samurai. Kanda sighed in resignation and brought out the item he had 'borrowed' from Komui's office. The glossy title read, "Gossip Weekly."

Muttering under his breath, the samurai roughly opened the magazine and tore through its pages which, much to his disgust, largely consisted of fashion tips, beauty tips, gossip, and various ways to spice up your- oops, Kanda did _not _want to read that…and countless other insignificant articles and problem pages where women wail continuously about their every minuscule problems. It was admittedly amusing for our dear cynical samurai to see that these shallow, pathetic women actually think that anyone else who actually has a life gives a damn about their never-ending tragic tales of cheating boyfriends…and… in a few particularly weird ones…girlfriends.

Imagine, they're actually killing trees to make crap like this…

But finally, after trudging through all those pages, the samurai landed on the page he had been looking for. Taking in a deep breath, he threw out his last shards of sanity out of the window.

With another sigh, the disgruntled samurai began to read dispassionately_, "Rose (real name withheld to protect client confidentiality) led a happy, carefree lifestyle. She has a good job, she is young and beautiful, she came from a loving and happy family and she has the most charming boyfriend (Harry) any girl would ask for. However, her peaceful life shattered on one fateful night when she returned from a trip one day earlier than expected only to find her man in bed with another….man._"

"_Ignoring Harry's pathetic excuses that he had a cold and his _good friend_ (James) was kind enough to come over to provide some body heat, Rose kicked her boyfriend and his boyfriend out of the house they both shared. She didn't even bother handing them their clothes before she shoved them both out of the front door so chances are, her boyfriend's flimsy excuse about having a cold just might come true after all. Rose wept bitterly than night, staring out of the window as the two of them tried in vain to cover themselves with leaves from the gawping passer byes. That pathetic sight made her feel only slightly better."_

Much to his slight surprise, Kanda actually found himself not suffering as much as he had expected to. The little boy sat spellbound as he listened to Rose's lamentation of how she found out that the man who stole her lover had lost _his _girl to _another_ girl and was therefore, afraid of ever trusting girls again so he had turned to Rose's boyfriend for comfort…and a little bit more. For the sake of the child, Kanda had the sense _not_ to read those particular _very detailed _passages aloud. How _could _girls write stuff like that without feeling any shame?

"What happens next?" the brat had demanded, eagerly. Kanda raised an eyebrow. Wow, the brat was really _into_ this creepy stuff wasn't he? No wonder he's so girly…

"_Rose investigates deeper and finds out that the girl in which her boyfriend's lover (James) had lost his girl to had lost her previous boyfriend to Rose herself! Thus, deeply hurt by Rose's boyfriend (Harry) she turns into James's current girlfriend for comfort and love and thus, prompts James's girlfriend to leave James. And James, shocked and hurt, turned to Harry for love. So, this whole complicated love heptagon was started by Rose's boyfriend, Harry, from the start!"_

Wait…what..? The confused samurai had to read it over and over again to finally get it. Whoa, people who weren't exorcist sure have a lot of free time, don't they? For once, Kanda was actually _glad _he had such a busy schedule. Kicking akuma butt certainly sounded more simple and straightforward than those mind numbing love heptagons.

Allen was clearly nearly half-asleep but he still forced himself to listen. It was clear that the brat was totally in love with the story. Kanda gave himself a mental pat on the back. He read out the very last passage aloud:

"_Rose, determined to get even with Harry, who had broken so many hearts already, decided on revenge. She called James out for lunch to 'talk' and planned to flirt with him unashamedly, determined for him to fall for her and break Harry's heart. However, what she did not foresee was that James was actually a pretty decent guy and her little plan was working a little too well. So much so that Rose actually started developing feelings for James as well! How will Rose and James face their new mutual attractions for each other? To find out, purchase next week's edition and read to find out._"

By that time, little Allen had nearly fallen asleep sitting. He looked up groggily as soon as Kanda stopped talking. "Is the story over yet?" he asked, eyes practically drooping in sleepiness.

"For now," Kanda replied shortly. He unceremoniously stuffed the sleepy child under the covers. Allen nearly passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow but before Kanda could stand up to leave, a little hand caught hold of his sleeve.

"What now?" the samurai rolled his eyes as he turned to face the brat who was rubbing his eyes frantically, as if that would help to get rid of his sleepiness.

"What about the bad people in white?" Allen asked, his voice slurred in drowsiness, his eyes almost half shut. The samurai grumbled under his breath in exasperation but replied impatiently, "I'll stay here until you fall asleep, all right? Now shut up and go to sleep, bean sprout."

If he left the terrified kid alone in his room, heavens knows what the kid might be pushed to do. The samurai didn't really fancy waking up the next morning to yet _more_ complications from the troublesome brat.

Anyway, it looked as if the samurai didn't have that long to wait. The brat looked as if he might just pass out in ten seconds flat.

The disgruntled samurai sat down on the only chair in the room to watch over the brat, as promised. Already he could see Allen almost dozing off into deep sleep. He decided to stay for just a few minutes longer before trudging off into his own room. After all, it wasn't all that late yet and he had nothing to do in his own room anyway besides brood and glare at the wall, which he already did a lot during the day.

Suddenly, the door burst open with a deafening bang, startling Kanda out of his stupor as he hurriedly jumped up and immediately grabbed his sword on pure reflex. Allen sat up instantly in alarm and dived to huddle behind the samurai's knees. Kanda could feel the child shaking all over in fear. Growling under his breath, he turned to face their late night intruder only to come face to face with a large grin and bright red hair. Oh, for the love of…

"Lavi, what the _hell _do you think you're doing?" Kanda demanded, glaring icily at the cheerful, red haired exorcist. He could feel Allen slowly calming down as soon as he registered the fact that he wasn't in any danger after all.

"Just saying hi to two of my most favourite people on earth," Ravi smiled disarmingly at the irritated samurai. Kanda snorted disbelievingly as he stared shrewdly at his so-called friend. Ravi never burst into other people's rooms in the middle of the night _just _to say hi, as incomprehensible and unpredictable the bright-eyed youth may be at times.

"What do you want?" Kanda asked, directly. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Ravi's annoying, cheery roundabout mannerisms just then.

"What, I can't drop by to see you two without a reason?" Ravi put on a hurt look. Kanda merely stared stonily in response. Sure enough, the red haired boy playfully stuck out his tongue in defeat and brought out a thick, voluminous looking book. He thrust it into the rather surprised samurai's hands.

"It's a book," Ravi explained, rather unnecessarily. "I found it in the library just now while I was doing some records for Bookman. I thought you might find it useful."

The book was titled in pink, cursive letters: 'An Underage Teenage Mother's Guide to Parenting.'

Kanda felt his eyes twitching in aggravation. What on earth was with the weird title?

"Do I _look_ like an underage teenage mother?" Kanda growled, resisting the urge to fling the book into Ravi's face.

Ravi's visible eye twinkled mischievously as he looked pointedly at the way Allen was _still _burrowed timidly behind the irate Kanda's knees, all the while sending Ravi apprehensive looks. "I don't know about you, but Allen-kun seems to feel that way."

Kanda glared murderously at the red haired exorcist as he hurriedly yanked the little boy out from behind his knees and pulled him in front of him to face Ravi. Ravi smiled cheerfully at the nervous boy and ruffled his white hair affectionately, "How are you coping with Yuu-chan, Allen-kun?"

Allen nervously answered in a tone somewhere above a pathetic squeak, "Fine."

Ravi surveyed the boy sadly from his one visible eye. "He got really terrified by those people, didn't he?" he asked Kanda, quietly. The samurai nodded tight lipped in response, feeling the familiar odd anger rising up within him. Those bastards who did whatever they did to that innocent little boy were going to _pay_.

After that, Ravi bade Kanda and Allen goodnight, all smiles as usual but there was a twinge of sadness within those dancing green eyes as he looked at the small, fragile looking little boy before shutting the door.

Allen quietly climbed into his bed once more and pulled up the blankets high up to his chin. Not knowing what to say or do, the samurai sank into the chair once more and opened the book Ravi had lent to him and apprehensively began to read. The first few pages were the sappy introductions on the joys of motherhood. Kanda scanned through some of them and snorted. Obviously, the author never had a brat eating soap and _throwing up_ on her before…

However, after he skipped through all those parts, he had to admit: the book _was _kind of informative. It went on to explain all about the psychological and physical growth of children in the first chapter, in which Kanda had decided the brat was stunted in _both_ ways. The next chapter went on about the feeding patterns and the proper nutrients and vitamins to feed them…he knew he didn't have to worry about _that_. The brat fed himself just fine.

After that, the book explained about common insecurities and childhood fears. Then it went on about child development, the do's and don'ts, the common parental mistakes, common behavior, disciplining, interaction with other people, proper toys, their playtime, sleeping patterns, common childish habits, not-so-common disorders and a couple hundred pages more.

The stunned samurai never knew that there were so many rules and regulations in taking care of a child. In his opinion, as long as a kid is stuffed with enough food and water and is still breathing and bawling about, the little brat would survive. But the book went on about things that didn't even cross his mind as necessary…like never leave a child alone in the bathroom…cough. Kanda's head ached as he tried to absorb all the numerous complicated facts. Honestly, he never knew there were so many!

In a whirl of facts, instructions, cautions and advices, the samurai rubbed his sore temples and groaned aloud, "I'm lost."

Suddenly, he felt his hand being grabbed by a much smaller one. Curiously, he sent the sleepy looking boy a questioning look.

Allen, still holding onto his hand, sent him a wide albeit groggy smile and exclaimed brightly, "Found you!"

Kanda snorted and cuffed Allen's head, "Stupid bean sprout."

But Allen merely grinned in response before closing his eyes and falling asleep once more, having seen the tiny, reluctant and absolutely minuscule smile tugging at the samurai's mouth.

* * *

I know I said I'd reveal why Allen's a four year old in this chapter but I decided to be evil and leave all you dear readers to puzzle about it _more…_wakkakakaka!

Okay, I'm sorry! I _planned_ to fit it in this chapter but I got a _tad_ carried away and before I knew it, I glanced at the page count and went, "Oh shit, I wrote twenty five pages already?" So, I'm really, really sorry and I promise to try my best to fit it in the next chapter, okies? Oh yeah, please review and tell me what you think about this chapter :)


	3. Chapter 3

Hi!! I'm back again :) I would like to announce some changes made to the story. I would like to thank PurpleCow12 for pointing out some mistakes in this story concerning the Japanese honorifics.

It's true that the characters are in England, but like most anime and manga, the characters still retain some Japanese practices like saying 'Itadakimasu' before they eat and 'Tadaima' when they come home and bowing and so on. However, I have re-watched the anime series again and have noted that although some characters _do _use Japanese honorifics, Allen does not address Kanda as Kanda-san or Ravi as Ravi-san. So, I've made some changes in this chapter to rectify my mistake.

There, got that off my chest :) And thank you so much to those who reviewed my previous chapter! I felt really touched at all your encouragements, I really did. Now before my babbling takes up all the page space, on to the third chapter!

* * *

_Allen stirred slightly before regaining consciousness. He laid there for a moment, unmoving, trying to suppress the blinding pain throbbing insistently in his head. His whole body wasn't feeling too good in general either. He could feel a series of cuts and bruises all over. The cold stone floor felt wonderful against his aching muscles…_

_Wait, cold stone floor? _

_Slowly, Allen began to be aware of his surroundings. He wasn't in the country side anymore…that much was certain. Where the heck was he? The last thing he remembered was getting sent to some remote village with Kanda Yuu, getting ambushed by akuma, feeling the blinding pain at the back of his neck...and everything else afterwards was basically an unhelpful blank. _

_Where was he? More importantly, where on earth was Kanda? Slowly, Allen cracked open an eye, careful to keep it still halfway closed. If he were in enemy territory, it was always best to play dead, or at least, unconscious as long as he could. The enemy tended to be more likely to let slip useful information whenever they assumed the target wasn't listening. He would also be able to buy time to assess the situation and hopefully even formulate an escape route. _

_Ironically, he had learned all this from the countless times he got kidnapped as a child for ransom by street gangs thinking that if they got his precious apprentice in their clutches, Cross would finally cough up all the money he owed them. Sadly, as all of them found out, General Cross didn't seem to give a damn about his idiot apprentice's welfare. He actually _laughed_ when they sent him the ransom letter…then he would use it to make paper cranes to impress his dates...and would later yell at the worn out and weary Allen as he crept in the door for coming back so late. _

_He squinted through his half open gray eyes and quickly shut them close again, his eyes stinging slightly. _

_He was surrounded by what seemed like eye-wateringly bright, white light. Temporarily blinded, Allen tried to rely on his other senses to give him a clue on where he was. He could hear nothing but silence, though he did pick up some strange whirring noises in the background. He could smell the rather cement-y smell of stone, which was explainable seeing as he was _lying _on it. He could feel nothing but the aching pain of his injuries. _

_In a nutshell, the only clue to where he was had to be the white, blinding light._

_Dear gods, he wasn't in heaven was he? _

_No, no…he couldn't possibly be _dead_ already. He was lying on a stone floor. Stone floor. Allen didn't think there would be stone floors in heaven. He rather imagined they would be walking on clouds instead. And clouds were supposed to be soft and fluffy, weren't they? Besides, he was in pain. You shouldn't be able to feel pain if you were dead, shouldn't you?_

_Allen grimaced at the migraine still pounding in his head. Yep, definitely alive..._

_More carefully this time, he attempted to open his eyes partway again. His eyes stung with all the bright light blaring into it but once his eyes adjusted to the light, he caught a glimpse of what seemed like a laboratory, not unlike the one back at the headquarters, and a number of hooded, white figures. It was then that Allen suddenly noticed his wrists and ankles were cuffed with light, but sturdy looking metal chains firmly attached into the stone ground._

_He experimentally gave his right wrist a discreet tug. It jingled slightly but held on fast. Sighing slightly, Allen closed his eyes and attempted to make some sense out of the odd place in which he had been brought. Maybe things weren't so bad after all...maybe these people were just harmless but paranoid scientists who …apart from the whole knocking-out-a-total-stranger-and-chaining-him-to-the-ground bit...were probably really nice and understanding people…_

"_You can stop playing dead, exorcist. We know you're awake," a cold voice interrupted Allen's train of thought. He gave an involuntary start of surprise. He felt fear and apprehension rise up within him. He was virtually defenseless in an unknown place and was outnumbered a hundred to one by these ominous looking figures in white and had absolutely no idea what the heck they wanted from him nor what they gained from chaining a total stranger to the floor. Wonderful….simply wonderful…exactly the kind of situation a battle- exhausted exorcist longed to find himself in…_

_Struggling to keep his voice steady, Allen looked up defiantly at the tall white figure standing imperiously before him. "Good day to you too," he said pleasantly, though his grayish blue eyes narrowed slightly in clear suspicion and wariness. The white figure had a hood covering most of his face but Allen could still spot a rather amused sneer tugging at his mouth. _

"_How unexpected. An exorcist with a sense of humour," the cold voice sounded more amused than ever. A flurry of titters and chuckles came from the masses of white, hooded people. It seemed they were enjoying some sort of a private joke._

"_Unexpected, isn't it?" Allen smiled politely. He glanced at the chains and looked up again, "Is this how you always treat your guests?"_

"_Not usually," the man chuckled again. "But then again, we like to make special exceptions for special occasions." _

"_Oh, really now?" Allen said lightly, the polite little smile never leaving his face. It was so bizarre, Allen thought to himself. Here he was, all chained up in a midst of a hundred unknown foes and by the way they kept exchanging polite pleasantries, they could have been old friends meeting over Christmas or something. "What's the occasion?"_

"_I guess you'll soon find out for yourself," the man replied in equally light tones. It was as if they were discussing the weather or something. Allen shivered inwardly. He didn't really like the part about him soon finding out what the occasion was. Maybe it was just his paranoia, but when strangers chain you to the ground, they don't usually tend to throw feasts and parties in your honour afterwards._

_A heavy silence descended upon the place. Allen took the opportunity to take a better look around the place in which he was held captive, hoping to find a hint of an escape route. A door? A window? Heck, a chimney? Nope…nothing. The entire room was encased within what looked like smooth, door less and windowless concrete walls. Allen felt his heart sink. But there had to be a way out, there _had _to be. Otherwise, how do the others get in and out themselves?_

"_I'm afraid you won't be able to find a way out that way," the man finally spoke again, smug amusement lacing his voice. Allen had a sudden urge to punch him. _

"_Well, then. How on earth will I be going out after my pleasant stay at your…place?" Allen asked, a hint of impatience seeping through his polite tones._

"_You'll soon find that it will be the least of your concerns," the man was obviously enjoying himself immensely. _

"_So what the heck do you people want with me?" Allen demanded, his polite façade shattering suddenly. He glared at the chuckling man, who didn't seem shocked in the least at his outburst. In fact, he seemed to be actually _anticipating_ it. Clenching his fists in fury, Allen yelled, "Innocence, activate!" _

_For a moment, it looked like it had worked. His red arm started emitting a greenish glow as it began to change into the anti-akuma weapon in the form of a white claw. The chains creaked ominously and looked as if it were going to snap at any moment. However, the green light flickered off suddenly as the chains started glowing mysteriously. Allen screamed in pain as a burning sensation enveloped his entire arm. The white claw quivered desperately for a moment before it slowly shrank back to Allen's shriveled, red arm again. _

"_Temper, temper," said the man, disapprovingly waggling a finger at him. Allen looked as if he might just gnaw off the finger if given the chance. "Honestly, exorcist. It would do you some good not to underestimate us. Those chains have been strengthened and fortified to withstand the Innocence. Your precious little anti-akuma weapon is powerless against it." _

_With a smirk, the man threw back his white hood to reveal a rather well groomed looking man in his early thirties. He had intelligent, though rather calculating looking icy blue eyes and had his straw coloured hair neatly combed back out of his face. He also had perfect, straight teeth which were now bared into a leering smile. _

"_Welcome, exorcist, to the headquarters of the White Order," _

* * *

Kanda's dark eyes opened with a start. He sat up on his bed and peered groggily out of the window. It was still so dark and Kanda even spotted a few stars dotted here and there. A glance at the clock hanging on the bare walls told him it was only five o' clock in the morning on the dot. 

It was probably a testament to Kanda's strict self-discipline that no matter what country he was in, no matter how tired he was the day before; he would always rise up at five sharp. Without fail. It was as if his biological clock had inconveniently inherited his mind's obsessive quirkiness or something.

So no matter how much he needed more sleep, like when he had gone through a whole day fighting akuma non-stop or like the time years ago when Ravi went through his first heartbreak and he had to be the unwilling listener to Ravi's constant laments and wails about his lost love all….friggin'…night…long, his body simply wouldn't allow him to catch a few minutes more of snoozing.

On a side note, for those who are wondering why Kanda didn't just boot Ravi out of his room all those years ago, he _did_. But Ravi continued to howl and weep _outside_ his door and it is _very_ hard to ignore someone when they're howling at the top of their voices outside your door. So, our unfortunate samurai didn't get any sleep at all until the wee hours of the morning when Ravi had finally lost his voice and had passed out from exhaustion outside his door.

And up to this day, he still vehemently denies all accusations that it was he who had draped that blanket over Ravi's unconscious form that night.

Though, if you really squint, you could detect a faint flush of embarrassment spreading discreetly across his pale face.

Stretching, Kanda got up and went for his daily morning shower. The bath was nearly always mercifully empty at this time in the morning. Which was a good thing, for both the other males and for Kanda as he, being the dear little private iceberg he was, liked having the bath all to himself and for the other males because, really, who wanted to be bathing in the same place as the infamous, instant-killer-of-any-conversation Kanda Yuu?

After his nice, refreshing and private bath, Kanda pulled on a plain, white yukata, grabbed Mugen and headed down to the practice fields for his usual morning training routine, which usually consisted of around two hours of non-stop sword swinging and complicated foot work followed by half an hour of meditating. The other exorcists and pathfinders knew well enough by now to give the practice fields a huge berth whenever it was being occupied by Kanda Yuu.

So, he was really quite surprised and none too pleased when his sharp ears caught the telltale sign of approaching foot steps. Even Ravi knew not to come down to pester him while he was doing his morning practices and meditations. Partly because the red head knew and understood his need for complete privacy and concentration during his intense training…and partly because he wasn't usually capable of crawling out of bed at any time before noon …and mostly because the last time he tried years ago, Kanda nearly sliced off his nose.

And the only reason his nose was still attached to his face was because he had tripped over a log just in time to avoid the blow.

"Good morning, Kanda!"

Kanda cringed inwardly. Brilliant, of all people to walk in while he was training, it had to be that useless four-year-old brat. At least with other people, he could chop off a finger or two in warning, but the bean sprout? _He _was in charge of him, so basically, any injury to the useless brat's being would be ultimately _his _responsibility as protecting the brat's useless rump happened to be _his_ mission.

So, it's not that Kanda was showing mercy just because he was a kid. It was because of his obsessive, perfectionist streak, he had to complete each and every mission flawlessly and perfectly, no matter how trivial.

Just to clear things up, you know? So you won't get the utterly wrong idea that he was, you know, softening up. Cough.

"What in heaven's name are you doing up so early in the morning?" Kanda demanded, pausing in a mid-strike to glare at the smiling boy who was still in his bunny pajamas. Komui had lent it to him last night. It had apparently shrunk in the washer some time ago. Frankly, Kanda didn't even _want_ to know why he even _had_ a pair of pink, bunny pajamas on hand.

"Looking for you," the brat replied honestly. He sat down on the dewy grass and looked up at the scowling exorcist towering above him. "You weren't in your bedroom."

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be up in my bedroom while I'm down here practicing in the fields," Kanda said, rolling his eyes. "Thank you for pointing out the obvious."

The little brat completely ignored his biting retort and instead stared curiously at the sheathed Mugen gripped tightly in the samurai's hand.

"What are you doing?" the brat asked, his white head tilting curiously.

"Baking cookies," was the sullen reply he got from the disgruntled samurai who now pointedly turned his back to the child and resumed his training.

"Baking cookies," Allen repeated, confused. His face was scrunched up in bewilderment as he stared blankly at the Kanda who was now doing a series of bizarre looking combinations of kicks and swings.

"Yeah, I get a kick out of randomly jumping around and wildly swinging my sword in every direction imaginable," Kanda muttered under his breath. "I'm doing my practices, you little moron. What on earth do you _think _I'm doing?"

"_You _said you were baking cookies," Allen blinked in puzzlement. "Then you went on and said you were randomly jumping around and something about swinging in every direction and then you say you're doing practices. Which one am I _supposed_ to think you're doing?"

Kanda rolled his eyes heavenward and gave it up. Sarcasm was obviously wasted on that illiterate brat who had the collective vocabulary of a four-year-old child. Oh wait, he _was_ a four-years-old child now…well, it really was quite hard to tell the difference; the older Allen Walker wasn't all that bright either…

Kanda carried on with his training, determinedly ignoring his little spectator as much as he could. Though, his slashes and hacks were notably a good deal more vicious now than before Allen had interrupted. The brat just sat there, staring the fluid figure with a spark of curiosity in his bright silver eyes.

Watching Kanda Yuu do his morning practices wasn't something one usually had the privilege of, probably because those who tried never tried again afterwards. But it really was jaw-dropping to watch if one had the chance to. The way he fluidly and seemingly effortlessly performed near-acrobatic feats and the graceful but deadly looking strokes of his sword took one's breath away.

The most unnerving thing was how _quiet _he was. You'd think that slashing and striking with enough force to effortlessly lope off somebody's head would make a more impressive noise but all Allen could hear were the soft, almost gentle swishes of blade slicing through air. He moved so gracefully and softly that it looked as if his feet were barely brushing the ground at all.

Allen sat stock still on the dewy grass, hugging his bony knees to his chest and with his bright eyes never leaving Kanda's fluid form. He didn't seem to be particularly impressed in the least, much to Kanda's slight chagrin. He found himself doing more complex moves than he usually would have done just to get a reaction out of the infuriatingly calm little boy. Even a raised eyebrow would do! But the brat was just sitting there with that annoyingly amiable smile plastered on his face.

After doing a particularly spectacular move involving a difficult spin in mid-air and a series of complicated slashes and jabs (it was, in fact, quite useless in a real battle but it _did _look very impressive), he subtly glanced at the little boy to see his reaction. Yes! His mouth was wide open….!!!!! In awe? In reverence?

Wait a minute, why on earth are his eyes shut…?

And is that drool trickling down his chin…?

And dear gods, is that brat _snoring_?

Kanda's thin eyebrows twitched dangerously in aggravation. Here he was, putting on this grand show for the useless little brat who barely deserved it and just how was he showing his gracious thanks? By snoring at him! Snoring! He glared murderously at the oblivious little boy.

Allen sleepily blinked open his eyes. Which was probably a good thing because if he hadn't, Kanda would have probably smothered him in his sleep already, flawless mission or not.

"Wow, it's so bright already," Allen said, smiling groggily. "Look, the sun's nearly halfway up."

"Well yes, generally, the sun _does_ tend to come up during the day," Kanda replied dryly.

"How long was I asleep?" Allen yawned, stretching his thin little arms. The samurai glared at him again, his pride still considerably wounded.

"Long enough," he replied scathingly. He sheathed his sword and sat down cross legged for his daily morning meditation. In order to survive through the considerable strain and stress of being an exorcist, one must be strong both physically _and _mentally. It doesn't matter how well trained or how compatible an exorcist was with his Innocence if he was going to faint at the first sight of blood. Being an exorcist meant keeping your emotions and your own selfish desires in check, striving only to the destruction of the Millennium Earl.

Something a certain bean sprout could do to learn before he kills himself _and_ his teammates. They can't save everyone. That's a solid fact. No matter how tragic and heartbreaking it is, exorcists are expected to squelch out their own personal misgivings and slog on to their next mission. That in itself was hard enough. Succumbing to weak impulses like guilt and sentimentality isn't going to make it any easier.

That's why everyday Kanda Yuu meditates for at least half an hour a day. It soothes and clears his mind of all the troubles and catastrophes that might have happened the previous day so that he would be able to start afresh once more. It relaxes him and calms him down enough so that he would be able to maintain his mask of cool indifference for the rest of the day without letting a crack of his emotions seep through.

Allen stared at the cross legged samurai in puzzlement. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and even. His face, usually scrunched up in cold disdain and cool indifference, was relaxed and he looked almost peaceful. A spark of comprehension dawned in those huge eyes. Allen hurriedly jumped to his feet and hurried back to the building as fast as his little legs could carry him.

Kanda heard the brat hurrying away and sighed in relief. Now he could concentrate on his meditation without any distraction. Maybe he got hungry or something. Good riddance…

Much to his huge displeasure, he heard the sound of tiny foot steps hurrying back to him after just a few minutes. He determinedly made his face as blank as ever, hoping the brat would get the hint and not make any contact at all. The sound of light foot steps got steadily nearer until it stopped a few feet away from him. Kanda heard the sound of heavy panting and the rustling of some sort of material being dragged across the wet, dewy grass.

He dismissed it from his mind and refocused on meditating…. until he felt something warm and familiar being flung onto his prone back. His dark eyes opened with a start, startled. He glanced backwards and raised his eyebrows.

"Why," he asked, perplexed, "have you brought down my exorcist coat?"

The brat had collapsed into a panting heap onto the grass next to him. Propping himself up with bony elbows, he gave the bewildered samurai a stern look and replied reproachfully, "You'll catch a cold if you keep falling asleep outside like this."

"……what?" was his articulate response. He fingered his warm coat that hung limply over his shoulders. He? Catch a cold? The very notion was almost laughable. He hadn't gotten sick since he was nine years old. Unlike _some _exorcists, he actually took good care of his body. And since when was he sleeping?

"It's cold today," Allen explained patiently. Kanda could think of a million bitingly sarcastic remarks in reply to that statement but all he said at that time was:

"I see."

Anyway, the coat _was_ pretty warm… and it _was_ a pretty cold morning…

A moment of peaceful silence reigned over as both exorcists fell silent in thought. Kanda took the opportunity to continue with his meditation in peace. The brat wasn't all that bad when he wasn't talking…

"Is this your sword?"

Kanda's eyes snapped open at once. The brat was curiously fingering his sword, poking and prodding every dent and line. Just as he was thinking along the lines of 'as long as the sword was sheathed, the brat couldn't possibly hurt anything,' Allen suddenly pulled out the long, _sharp _sword with a hard tug and a grunt.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kanda demanded, slightly alarmed. The brat ignored him and started to swing the sword around in weak little slashes and strikes. To his further apprehension, he started hopping around, swinging the sword around ominously with every step and laughing excitedly.

"Look, Kanda!" he called gaily. Kanda felt slightly sick. Maybe it was just him, but he found it just slightly disturbing when four year olds start waving around sharp, deadly swords almost as long as themselves. Oh, dear Gods, was it just him or were that bits of white, snowy hair sticking onto the blade…?

"Oi, stop that!" he roared, standing up and running after the brat. Allen just laughed happily and moved out of his grasp, still swinging the sword around in every direction. Kanda was about to chase the brat around this rock…only, he didn't _see_ this rock, resulting in painfully stubbing his right toe directly into it. He cursed in pain and bent down to check if he'd broken it. Broken toes were considered minor injuries but they _were_ a major pain in the ass in battles.

"Your sword's heavy," Allen commented, panting heavily. He tried to swing it up again but failed. Gritting his teeth, the little boy mustered all his strength and pulled it up again with an almighty squeak of effort. He managed to swing the sword up halfway before his tight grip on the hilt loosened in exhaustion. In the huge momentum, the sword flew right out of the boy's grip and sailed straight into the air.

Kanda looked up from his toe just in time to see his sword perform a graceful arc in the air before landing directly between his thighs, making a hole in his yukata where it landed. Should the sword have landed a quarter of an inch higher, Kanda could have kissed his masculinity goodbye.

Face sweating, whether from the chase or from fright, he looked up at the stunned little boy with a slightly wobbly smirk, "Nice aiming." And he seriously meant it this time, without the usual sarcasm. It usually took years and years of hard practice for a swordsman to achieve such precise and accurate aiming.

"Why?" Allen asked; his head tilted in genuine puzzlement. "I _missed_."

Kanda paled dramatically as he stood up. He apprehensively glanced down at the huge rip in his yukata between his thighs, dangerously near his crotch area and replied simply, "No shit."

* * *

"White Order_?" Allen repeated slowly, staring into those icy blue eyes. "And what on earth is that? Some sort of weird cult that gets a kick out of kidnapping random people off the street?"_

"_Impertinent," the man hissed softly, cold blue eyes flaring for a second before it iced over once more. "Believe me; if you _were _some 'random person on the street,' your tongue would have been ripped off by now for associating our Order with _cults."

"_Fortunately, for you however, you happen to be of some use to us," the man continued. "Otherwise, you wouldn't even have woken up from that little nap."_

_Allen glared at the man. He was trapped. His anti-akuma weapon could not work, at least, not as long as those blasted chains still held him and he was virtually helpless without it. The only thing he could do now was to keep the man talking, hoping that it would delay whatever horrors were in store for him for as long as possible and to obtain as much information as he could for the Black Order in the unlikely event that he managed to escape._

"_So, this White Order of yours," Allen began, his polite façade slipping smoothly back on. "What's it about?"_

"_The White Order?" the man seemed willing the play along with Allen for a while. "It's an organization that strives into a different path than that of your own Black Order's rather murky one."_

"_Yeah, oddly enough, I had a sneaking suspicion that was the case," Allen replied, so politely that the man went quiet for a while, seemingly unable to make up his mind whether he had just been mocked or not. _

"_So what _does_ your so called Order do, really?" Allen asked, genuinely curious. "Not the whole different paths thing. What do you people actually _do _in here?"_

"_Well, although our core values and goals differ, the main thing we deal with is not all that different from the Black Order," the man replied slowly._

_Allen had the urge to scream at him to stop being so darned roundabout, but that wasn't exactly the most wise move in his rather restricted position, tactically wise. So, he maintained his amiable smile and gently probed, "Which is?" _

"_Scientific research on the Innocence," the man said. His eyes lit up with something akin to passion, temporarily melting away the ever present iciness in it. He spread out his white clothed arms and gestured at the walls of the cold stone room. For the first time, Allen noticed that every inch of the wall around the room had been fixed with shelves that seemed to stretch around the entire expense of the stone wall, almost like the library back at the headquarters. The doors locking the shelves in were made out of what seemed like very tough looking transparent glass that glinted in the harsh light. The shelves themselves seemed to emit a glowing light of their own. Allen squinted at it, confused, then he gasped._

"_The Innocence!" he exclaimed, shocked .Pieces of the Innocence; carefully stored behind special glass doors, glowed softly in the harsh white light. Allen's wide eyes scanned the entire room. Practically half the shelves were filled up and that was quite saying something, as all the shelves stretched from the ceiling to the ground and curved around the entire room. "Where and how on earth did you manage to get that many?"_

"_The Black Order isn't the only Order sending teams out to investigate potential Innocence-bearing sites," the man smiled smugly. "Our network is as, or perhaps is even more, sophisticated than your own. These days, most expeditions to retrieve the Innocence have been more or less fruitless for the Black Order, hasn't it?" _

_It was true, Allen thought dimly, barely registering anything in his shock. Recently less and less teams of exorcists and finders alike were coming back with successful reports. Allen, like most other exorcists, had simply dismissed it as bad luck or false trails. Not once did it occur to any of them that another group was collecting and storing the Innocence as well. Judging by the sheer number of Innocence this Order had managed to retrieve, they knew what they were doing. _

"_Is that why so many akumas have suddenly gathered around this area?" Allen croaked suddenly. "Such a large amount of the Innocence all cluttered up together is bound to attract akumas. Aren't you aware of how many people you are putting into danger here?" He stared pointedly at the masses of grave, hooded figures gathered around him. _

_To Allen's surprise, the man laughed. It was a very cold laugh and it seemed more of a mocking one than a joyful one. "Oh, you arrogant exorcists, always making assumptions as usual," the man said, still chuckling slightly. "Do you actually think that we'd risk storing this amount of Innocence without some level of protection? Do you really think we really are all that helpless? Do you seriously think that all the hopes in the world lie in the existence of the Black Order? Do you truly believe that every single exorcist in the world is in or will be in the Black Order?"_

_The last sentence struck something inside Allen. His silver eyes widened considerably. He said hoarsely, "You mean there are-"_

"_Yes, you've guessed it. Not all exorcists choose to belong in the Black Order, you know. A few considerably powerful exorcists have chosen to stake their loyalty to the White Order instead; a wise decision, might I add," the man smiled thinly. "And I assure you, they are more than sufficient to protect our headquarters. We don't _need_ your condescending pity. "_

"_But-But why on earth are you collecting all these Innocence for?" Allen asked, still slightly dazed. _

"_As I've just told you, exorcist, scientific research," the man replied coolly. He stared down disdainfully at the white haired boy._

"_But we _need _those pieces of Innocence to defeat the Millennium Earl," Allen said, silver eyes imploring the man to see reason. "Don't you know that by storing the Innocence here to rot away uselessly, you're sabotaging your own side? Do you _want_ to see the destruction of this world? The exorcists _need _these weapons to fight against the Earl!"_

"_Weapons?" the man inquired, raising an eyebrow mockingly. "Weapons, you call the Innocence; weapons good for nothing else but for the destruction of your enemies, like some common_ _knife and dagger? Arrogant exorcists! You all have barely tapped into the full potential of the Innocence. Once you get something powerful, it's all about using it in wars and battles and destruction! You are not worthy to be the wielders of such power."_

"_The Innocence was _meant _from the very beginning_ _to be a weapon against the Earl," Allen explained, in strained patience. _

"_The Innocence was something our ancestors left for us before the Noah's Flood," the man continued . "Civilization before the Flood was possibly more advanced than our own. It is only logical that the scientific wonder known as the Innocence surpasses the pathetic technological growth of our times. Think of all the potential it could hold! Don't just think of them as mere _weapons_. Think of how many fantastic inventions that could be made by studying them! Think of how much easier we could make life for people!"_

"_The Innocence has the power to cause all sorts of unexplainable phenomenon impossible by the laws of nature. By channeling that mysterious power, we could make wonderful inventions, build cities, stop wars and famines, cure incurable diseases and sicknesses, put a stop to ravaging plagues and epidemics and even ," the man ranted on with a near maniacal gleam in his eyes, "and even….revive the dead! We can make the world a better place. I'm sure that's why our ancestors left the Innocence to us. They entrusted such great power to us in order to restore the once splendid and glorious civilization of our world that was damaged by the Flood. The Innocence is not meant for weapons of destruction, it's meant for the rebirth and the revival of a new beginning for our world." _

_Allen was struck momentarily speechless. He stared, his jaw slightly agape at the now rather impressive figure looming over him. For a moment, his once steadfast principles and values were shaken. The way the man said it…made it sound so _right._ It made so much sense to him now. Why hadn't he thought of it that way? It was true that the scientists at the Black Order hadn't exactly explored the idea of alternate uses for the Innocence other than as a weapon against the Earl. Their ancestors had left them the Innocence in order to protect their world from the Earl…._

…_but could it also be meant to protect them from things other than the Earl that was also causing damage and destruction to their world…like wars and famines? It was only logical to think so…_

_And to revive the dead…Allen had a momentary pang as he thought of Mana. Would it be so bad to think that he could see Mana's wise eyes once more? Would it be so wrong to think that he could finally have a chance to apologize to Mana for turning him into an akuma? Allen felt tears silently gathering in his eyes as he thought of his father…the first person who had accepted him and showed him love despite he being shunned in society because of his red arm. All of a sudden, Allen wanted to see him again more than anything else in the world. _

_But then suddenly, Allen's cloudy vision cleared. This feeling he was feeling now; this deep, aching feeling of love and loss, was something the Earl routinely took advantage of in humans. In their darkest hour, the Earl manipulated their sorrow and their intense desire to see their loved one to turn them into his mindless pawns. _

_The Earl unashamedly used the loving bond between two humans, whether as parent to child, friend to friend, sibling to sibling, or lover to lover to get what he wanted in the end. Worse of all, he shattered that loving bond by forcing the akuma to kill the person who had called it back. The way he callously used and manipulated his victims' hope, love, desperation and grief was something Allen could not find in his heart to forgive. The Earl had to be stopped by all means before he destroyed any more innocent lives. Other alternate uses for the Innocence could wait. _

"_What you're saying makes a lot of sense," Allen said earnestly. "But defeating the Earl has got to be our main priority for now. Things like stopping wars and famines and curing sicknesses are really good aspirations. I really mean it! But the Earl is slowly plotting the end of our world as we speak. We're on a time limit; we _have _to defeat the Earl before he carries out his twisted plot. Stuff like wars and diseases can wait for now because if we don't stop the Earl, pretty soon we won't even_ have_ a world to have wars and diseases in!" _

"_Typical exorcists of the Black Order," the man said in cold disdain. "In your eyes, only your goals matter, doesn't it? It doesn't matter how much others might suffer because you guys used the one thing that might be able to end their plights as lowly weapons, isn't it? After all, certain sacrifices must be made for the greater good, is it not?"_

"_If we don't stop the Earl, the number of sacrifices would be _much_ bigger, believe me," Allen retorted, his patience wearing thin. "The Black Order is doing all it can do prevent the destruction of the world and-"_

_The man suddenly lunged forward and roughly pulled Allen up by his collar. He groaned in pain as the chains holding his wrists were stretched to their maximum, chaffing into his skin. The man stared into Allen's defiant silver eyes and leaned in close to hiss harshly into his ear, "The Black Order _brought on_ the destruction of _my _world, exorcist." _

_Then, the man forcefully shoved the puzzled exorcist back onto the cold, stone floor. With one last withering glance at Allen, he turned to the silent congregation of hooded figures and commanded, "Get the equipment ready for the experiment. We shall use the boy as our newest test subject. Let's see if he can survive what a few dozen mice could not."_

"_What are you going to do to me?" Allen demanded, looking around nervously as the silent congregation turned around immediately to carry out their orders. _

"_Congratulations, you are to be our first ever human test subject," the man grinned widely, though none of it reached his cold eyes. "I'm anxious to see if there will be any bit of you left after we're done with you. We have never found a single piece of the lab mice left over after we were done with them, you know." _

* * *

"Good morning, Yuu-chan, Allen!" Ravi cheerily waved as he spotted them both walking down the hallway. Kanda was clutching his sword and was wearing his white yukata, which could only mean he had been down at the training grounds as he usually did every morning. What _wasn't _so usual was the little boy happily chattering to his stony companion and who seemed oblivious to the fact that he was getting as much response out of Kanda as he would from talking to a rock. 

"So…he actually let someone watch him train broken-finger-free?" Ravi mused inwardly as he stared at the odd two. "_That's _a first…in about a century…"

"Ravi!" Allen beamed after he had spotted the redhead. The boy ran up towards him, leaving his stone cold companion trudging up behind him. Ravi cheerily ruffled Allen's white hair, all the while eyeing Kanda curiously. He seemed to be in some sort of a silent daze. What happened to _him_?

As soon as Kanda drew near enough to the now rather alarmed redheaded exorcist, he grabbed a surprised Ravi's collar and said hoarsely, "That brat is _never_ touching anything remotely sharp ever again."

Ravi's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion at this odd statement. As soon as Kanda released his death grip on his collar, Ravi took the chance to take a good, close look at him. After he finally spotted the rather obvious rip in the rather specific area, his visible green eye shone in amusement. He looked up again only to meet Kanda's murderous eyes locked onto his, daring him to laugh…which was what the red headed exorcist felt very much like doing at the moment.

But instead, Ravi opted for a very grave look. If you squinted, you would've spotted the subtle amusement dancing in his visible eye, but his expression was the perfect depiction of nothing short of utter seriousness.

In a deceptively light voice, Ravi innocently asked, "Oh my, is Yuu-chan _really _a Yuu-chan now?"

Kanda stared dumbfounded at Ravi, who tried and failed to hold in his laughter. Then, he scowled dangerously after he deciphered the hidden meaning within the red head's seemingly harmless statement. Ravi continued to snicker until his brain registered a very fatal fact that he seemed to have forgotten.

Kanda Yuu was clutching his sword.

It was one of the golden rules of survival in the headquarters that you do _not _piss off Kanda Yuu when his sword happened to be within grabbing reach.

However, Ravi, being the lovable, death wish wielding exorcist he was, continued to laugh. He did not manage to (arguably) befriend the homicidal samurai by fearing imminent death. Just _being _within the slashing range of Kanda's infamous Mugen was putting your life at risk already, because you'd never know when the way you walk or talk or breathe may suddenly annoy the temperamental, Japanese exorcist very much. And you can be sure that he'd never warn you. Not until perhaps you very suddenly find yourself staring at your own headless body lying in a bloody pool a few feet away.

And almost everything about the young bookman annoyed Kanda no end. It was a miracle that Ravi survived as long as he did. Kanda had almost gotten used to the red head's constant annoying chatter and overbearing cheeriness over the years. It was perhaps a little too premature for the stubborn, dark haired Japanese exorcist to openly consider it affection or friendship, but at least he respected and tolerated the young bookman in a way that he would've long castrated him if he didn't.

"No, Yuu-chan was _never_ Yuu-chan in the fist place," Kanda replied, his eyebrows twitching in aggravation. "Keep this up and you might wake up one day to find some parts of your anatomy brutally hacked off in the night."

"Oooh, scaaaary," Ravi grinned, giving patronizing little shivers of fear. "It's okay, sweetie, you don't have to be defensive. Your thing being chopped off by a four year old wouldn't change a thing in our relationship."

'Since when was 'my thing' chopped off by a four year old?" Kanda demanded, a vein popping in his forehead. "And since when did I _have _a relationship with _you_? But if you keep this up, starting a killer-victim relationship with you is starting to sound like a pretty good idea."

"Aw, you're denying it because we're in public?" Ravi winked, obviously enjoying himself. "You're so shy about _us _it's almost adorable. But that lovable little modesty is what I love most about my precious Yuu-chan."

Allen was staring curiously at this odd exchange with a puzzled look in his wide silver eyes. Then, a look of understanding flitted pass his eyes and he gasped in horror. He stuttered incredulously, "Kanda, you…you and Ravi are-?"

"No!" Kanda denied vehemently. He glared murderously at the laughing red head. "Fine example you're showing to a four year old child. Do you want him to be scarred for life? He was already mentally disturbed enough as a teenager."

Ravi just waved it off, still chuckling to himself. Kanda had the urge to plunge Mugen right into his snickering face. His murderous intent must've been really obvious because even Ravi could sense the homicidal vibes flowing out from him. Deciding to leave while his legs were still attached to his body, he turned to the fuming samurai for the last time and grinned, "Well, nice seeing you two but I have an appointment with Panda. And Yuu-chan, sweetie, don't be too hard on yourself; it's not like you had that much of a use for it anyway….after all, I'm usually the one on top." He winked cheerfully at them and sprinted off before Kanda could lope his head off.

"Drop dead!"

"Love you too, sweetheart!"

* * *

"So, apparently, we're going to get you some new clothes tomorrow," Kanda grumbled irritably as the boy jumped up into his bed that night. 

It wasn't _his _idea. The headquarters did not have any clothes small enough for the brat so Allen had gone through the whole day wearing an old, oversized shirt that was chucked away in Ravi's closet for three years. The shirt was apparently once blue but after it had gone one round in the washer with one of Komui's pink pajamas, the blue had turned into a rather ghastly shade of maroon.

It _really_ did not help that the shirt was proudly proclaiming, "_I'm too sexy for this shirt!_" on the front.

Kanda had lost count of how many idiot pathfinders and scientists alike who had cracked up at the sight of the little brat strutting around and tripping over that very four-year-old friendly shirt. It was admittedly, amusing to see Allen Walker of all people wearing a shirt proclaiming a narcissistic line like that. The real teenaged Allen Walker would've thrown a fit. Not to say that the four-year-old Allen Walker wouldn't have, not if he knew what the word 'sexy' meant….

Kanda had unremorsefully informed the innocent four year old child that it meant 'happy.'

The idiot brat actually bought it and in result, was continuously puzzled and slightly hurt throughout the day at why people kept laughing whenever they caught sight him. In all fairness, it wasn't just the shirt that looked so odd on him. Neither Kanda nor Ravi could find any pants that could fit his tiny waist or that was short enough that it wouldn't look like he was dragging a pair of snakes wherever he went so Allen had to make do with an old pair of yellow boxers found in a dark, dusty corner of Kanda's closet.

Needless to say, Allen Walker was quite the fashion diva that day. If Lenalee were there she would've fainted in horror on the spot.

Kanda had been quite willing to let Allen endure all this humiliation until he returned to his proper age. He was even quite willing to get a few flour bags and make holes on the sides for the arms and legs but Komui, being the evil dictator he was, _ordered_ Kanda to _use his own money _to get some clothes for the brat the next day. He seemed to be forgetting that exorcists weren't exactly swimming in cash. Considering their life-threatening jobs, their salary wasn't actually all that high.

It usually worked out, because the headquarters pretty much provided all the food and lodging and facilities the exorcists needed and the Black Order usually reserved and paid for all the hotel rooms and lodges and train rides they would require during missions. And it's not as if the exorcists had the time to go shopping anyway. They don't usually need to go out and buy clothes for _four year old brats_ so their meager salary was usually enough for getting their barest necessities.

In the event that they _did_ need to buy miniature clothes, well…they were on their own. Kanda had objected at first. He had offered to go and shrink his old shirts and pants in the washer so that they would fit the brat but Komui had insisted that as amusing as it was making Allen wear embarrassing clothes, they had to try to uphold Allen's dignity as much as they could. That even if he _was _currently a four year old he was still an exorcist of the Black Order and still deserved some level of respect.

As if that shameless, sentimental bean sprout had any dignity to begin with…blargh….

But Kanda could've nearly gotten away with it, if that utter idiot Ravi hadn't opened his big, loud mouth and happily volunteered to go shopping with 'Yuu-chan' and to contribute some of his own money into buying the clothes as well. Then, Komui, satisfied that all the financial problems were solved, proclaimed with finality that they were both going shopping for clothes for Allen tomorrow and turned a deaf ear on any more of Kanda's enraged protests.

It was as if Komui, Ravi and Allen were in a plot to annoy him as much as possible. Well, whatever they were doing, they _were_ succeeding.

"I'm sexy," Allen muttered as he sleepily laid his snowy head on his pillow and snuggled beneath his bedspread.

"…what?" Kanda said, promptly dropping Mugen in shock. It landed with a resounding clang but he just stared incredulously at the little boy. Allen tilted his head, looking genuinely puzzled at his odd reaction.

"I'm _sexy_," the boy continued cautiously, looking as though he sincerely feared for Kanda's sanity, "that I'm getting new clothes tomorrow."

"Oh right," Kanda replied innocently, without a trace of guilt whatsoever at the negative impact he was having on the boy's vocabulary. "I get it."

He really, really hoped the brat wouldn't say that in public though…

* * *

Phew! Done! Finally! Wow….the chapters really are getting longer and longer, aren't they? O.O 

Please, please review! I want to know what you all think about this chapter :)

P.S: Is it Ravi or Lavi or Rabi? I can't seem to make up my mind which one is right…


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